IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

Councils are moving away from mainframes and instead opting for Windows operating systems, according to research from the organisation representing local IT managers.

Back in 2000, only 7% of authorities ran ledger systems on Windows, while according to the latest figures this has now jumped to 29%. This trend is even more noticeable with applications which have been installed recently, such as licensing systems. Here, 84% run under Windows while the remainder are Unix.

Whereas in 2000 General Ledger systems in 43% of authorities were run on mainframes, in 50% on Unix, and in only 7% on Windows, today the equivalent figures are 9%, 52% and 29% respectively. For applications more recently automated, the trend to Windows is even more noticeable – 84% of licensing systems run under Windows with the remainder under Unix operating systems.

The United Kingdom Government has today signed an agreement with Microsoft to participate in the recently announced Government Security Program (GSP). The GSP will give the security community within the U.K. Government controlled access to Microsoft® Windows® source code and other technical information needed to be confident in the enhanced security features of the Windows platform. The U.K. Government is one of the first governments around the globe to sign the agreement, which builds upon work done with Microsoft on projects over many years.

Downtown Houston is a mere 30 miles northwest of the Fort Bend County Courthouse in Richmond, Texas, but congestion along Route 59 can bring the drive time during rush hour to nearly two hours. That's left more than one lawyer stuck in traffic sweating out a late-afternoon deadline to file court documents with the Fort Bend County Court. But the county is testing an electronic filing system it hopes to deploy by summer's end that should eliminate such problems. "It's the next evolution in document processing and filing," says Fort Bend County Clerk Dianne Wilson.