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Intelligent Heart of Public e-Service (GIDC)
Ministry of Public Administration and Security

The Problem

The e-government initiative was implemented in earnest in the late 1990's with the national informatization project of the Korean government, which was kicked off in the 1960’s, expanded into all areas of government administration. Under the initiative, ICT became a crucial part of government business, and a number of online administrative services for the public had dramatically increased.

Until the early 2000’s, the e-government initiative was carried out by each government ministry, developing about a thousand e-services, under which systems and networks were built individually.

These trends unexpectedly blocked channels of knowledge distribution among government agencies and incurred redundant investment of government funds.

①(DIFFICULTIY IN DATA & KNOWLEDGE SHARING)

In the past, there was limitation in integrating and linking data of different government agencies to effectively utilize ICT as common knowledge due to intricate system architecture and disconnected networks.

Although e-government system did exist, administrative agencies had to go through a complicated information verification process, and the public still had to visit multiple agencies and submit a number of documents to employ government services.

②(UNSTABLE E-SERVICES)

There were considerable gaps among ministries in terms of ICT system management capability and physical environment condition. Many of them experienced frequent system failures due to substandard ICT environment and less sophisticated expertise. Average failure time of equipment per month was 67 minutes, and only less than a half of the data had been backed up.

Electronically processed businesses were often halted in the event of system failures, causing it difficult for the public to anticipate reliable services.

③(REDUNDANT INVESTMENT)

Worse yet, as ministries competitively developed their own systems with similar functions, it led to the redundant investment of the government funds.

There was also huge inefficiency as separate servers were implemented for each individual business unit due to the absence of physical environment to share systems and data. The average usage rate of central processing unit (CPU) of each server was less than 30%.

④(SECURITY VULNERABILITY)

Physical security was not reliable either as access control system or disaster recovery system (DRS) was not in place.

On the cyber security aspect, since there were no comprehensive control function or professional organization in charge, ICT-based government businesses were often exposed to external threats.

That caused for the people frequently to worry about infringement of personal information and for the Government to concern about leakage of important data and potential suspension of public services.


In order to resolve all these problems, Korean government decided to push ahead with the Government Integrated Data Center (GIDC) initiative to ensure that public e-services are efficiently managed and provided to the public around the clock with no interruption even in disasters and to create synergy effects with ministries.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
GIDC is a datacenter exclusively for the government use that all kinds of ICT infrastructures and resources (i.e. H/W, S/W, N/W and Human Resources) that the government needs are to be provided.

GIDC plays the role as an integrated back office for all the government information and knowledge to be properly distributed to the public.

It comprehensively manages systems and database for about 1,100 e-services of 48 central government agencies. “K-net,” the dedicated network for the government connecting about 700 government agencies, is also managed and operated by GIDC.

①(SERVICES)

GIDC has significantly enhanced administrative efficiency and public convenience by leading agencies to share data and infrastructure through the centralized system.

With the common data sharing system, public officials no longer had to go through complicated data verification process and the public could exercise government services without having to visit various government agencies in person.

As of year of 2011, 120 types of administrative information is shared and accessed by 438 organizations including commercial banks.

In the meantime, “K-net” supports government services and knowledge to be transmitted more quickly and safely across the nation by connecting all government agencies regardless of location.

The level of satisfaction of GIDC clients scored 89.3 out of 100 points in 2011.

②(STABILITY)

Average system failure time significantly fell down from 4,020 seconds in 2004 to 5.4 seconds in 2010. Even such minimal failure has been successfully controlled through the high availability configuration of system.

Thanks to uninterrupted power supply system of GIDC, there has been no critical interruption of Korean e-services since its establishment.

Systems distributed in two data centers are cross backed up in real time, providing seamless services to the public 24/7.

③(SAVINGS)

Costs for equipment purchase, operation and maintenance were saved by 30%. On top of this, separately installed equipment by business unit was consolidated through virtualization and shared by ministries. GIDC could maximize efficiency in resource use.

The saved costs and resources have been invested to other initiatives such as addressing digital and security divide.

⑤(SAFETY)

Both physical and cyber security have been tightened thank to the reliable cyber security defense mechanism.

External threats such as hackings, viruses and DDoS are immediately blocked through various different kinds of means. (e.g. 24/7 monitoring on equipment and networks, 13,000 automatic detection and blocking rule-sets, 8-layered defense system, ‘e-ANSI,’ and Cyber Emergency Response Team).

Systems of GIDC have not affected by any fatal attack despite of around 30 million attempted attacks per year.

A research shows that as of 2010, the accumulated benefits brought by security enhancement of GIDC are equivalent to USD 560 million.

⑥(SYNERGY)

GIDC implementation and operation were outsourced to about 200 ICT vendors, thereby contributing to promoting ICT industry development, job creation and economic growth in Korea.


(BENEFICIARY) The beneficiaries of GIDC encompass 48 central government agencies, which outsourced operation of their systems to GIDC, 250 provincial governments connected to K-net, 400 public agencies and the public who utilizes e-services from these organizations.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
Establishment of GIDC was first proposed by the Special Committee on e-Government, which was formed by Kim, Dae-Jung administration (1998-2003), to innovate e-government with experts from the private sector.

Back then, the Committee pointed out that the e-government policies, which were inconsistently implemented by each government agency, made it difficult to achieve alignment. In response, the Committee proposed to build a government integrated data center (GIDC).

Following the footsteps of the Kim administration, Roh, Moo-hyun administration (2003-2008), which took the office in 2003, set e-government development as a key national project and was further materialized by formulating “31 Key Tasks for E-government Roadmap.”

President Roh pushed ahead with the initiative by leading the resolution of conflicts among stakeholders and monitoring the progress. Establishing the GIDC was one of the 31 key tasks, which has been implemented in earnest since then.

To set up the GIDC, the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs (currently Ministry of Public Administration and Security) first analyzed how ICT-based businesses are processed across the government, based on which it mapped out the GIDC master plan.

To put the plan into action, GIDC Taskforce was created, composed of civil representatives, public officials from nine ministries and experts from National Information Society Agency.

GIDC Project Steering Committee was also established engaging experts from academia, research centers and private firms to support and monitor the activities of the Taskforce.

About 180 ICT firms joined this effort to design and construct GIDC, build infrastructure and ICT systems, and shifting the existing ICT equipment to GIDC.

Upon the completion of construction, NCIA (National Computing and Information Agency) was officially launched as a government agency and has been assigned to manage and operate GIDC.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
①(ENHANCEMENT OF EXPERTISE)

In order to upgrade the level of the service and secure the reliability of it, GIDC (Government Integrated Data Center) chose to strengthen the technical expertise.

All the GIDC staff are required to complete at least 80 hours of special training course every year designed by NCIA and professional training institute to foster expertise.

In fact, 78 % of GIDC staff are highly skilled professional engineers and 86 % of them hold professional certificates.

GIDC has also actively exchanged its technological skills with globally-renowned ICT firms such as Samsung, LG, SK, HP, IBM, Oracle and Microsoft to catch up latest ICT technologies in the government sector.

②(STANDARDIZATION)

GIDC puts its best efforts to standardize its system and operation process to save costs and promote efficiency in business processing.

GIDC comes up with standardized specifications for introducing new H/W and S/W and guidelines for designing system architecture. On top of that, it equips itself with the systematic operational process as well.

These efforts got rewarded with a number of global recognition from international standardization organizations such as ISO and BSI and these could be the official proof to assure the client agencies the effective and reliable system management capability of GIDC.

③(DISASTER RESPONSE)

GIDC has been focused on developing multi-faceted disaster prevention and response system against potential threats associated with physical consolidation of systems.

It physically safeguards systems by implementing stringent access control system, dual system configuration, periodical data back-up, etc.

Cyber security also has remained under control through multi-layered defense system and 24/7 network monitoring system.

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is the set of action plan described in detail in response to nine types of disasters such as earthquake, flood, terrorism and cyber attacks which include organization, mock training scenario, and actions need to be taken by stages, etc.

④(LATEST TECHNOLOGY)

GIDC took the lead in promoting ICT development by proactively introducing the latest ICT technologies from H/W consolidation, green IT, cloud and mobile computing.

Recently, GIDC launches “G-cloud,” the dedicated cloud service platform for the government. GIDC started on mobile government service as well for public officials and the people to be able to access the services anytime and anywhere.


(OWNERSHIP) About 300 public officials of NCIA led the implementation of the strategy with the support of about 700 professionals from around 100 ICT service providers from private sector for system deployment and operation. Public officials of 48 government agencies which outsourced their system operation to GIDC constantly provide their feedback on what should be improved from clients’ standpoint.

GIDC makes a contract called SLA (Service Level Agreement) both with client agencies and outsourcing partner companies every year to manage the quality of the service.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
①(PLANNING STAGE)

In October 2002, Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) was conducted on 508 administrative organizations to identify the current status and challenges of ICT-based business process.

Based on the result of BPR, “31 Key Tasks for E-government Roadmap” which includes “construction of GIDC (Government Integrated Data Center) ” were confirmed. This was followed by the Information Strategic Plan (ISP) for GIDC implementation in July 2004. The plan was reported to the President in August 2004, reviewed and finalized by State Council in September 2004.

②(IMPLEMENTATION STAGE)

Right after the first data center, NCIA Daejeon, started its operation in November 2005, e-government systems (e.g. managing resident registration numbers, public procurement, customs, patents, health issues, public welfare, education, etc.) of 25 central government agencies were relocated to it and NCIA was officially launched as the government organization.

Following this, the second center, NCIA Gwangju was launched in November 2007, which serves as a back-up center, and systems (e.g. diplomacy, patents, public prosecutors, police services, national taxes, etc.) of the remaining 22 agencies were relocated to it.

The third center to reinforce back-up function is currently under construction.

③(OPERATION STAGE)

From 2005 to 2008, physical information resource, which had been dispersed in various government agencies, was co-located into GIDC for the centralized operation.

Since 2009, the budget (equivalent to USD 50 million as of 2009) to purchase equipment required by all the central government agencies was delegated to GIDC to centrally purchase and install equipment.

Through these consolidation processes, hardware and software with high capacity, high efficiency and low energy consumption were started to be set up in GIDC to be shared by all the government agencies.

GIDC has evolved its service area into cloud and mobile computing since 2010. Thanks to such efforts, Government agencies are provided with virtualized hardware and software in need through internet in real-time, the people can enjoy practicing lots of government administrative services through mobile equipment anytime, anywhere.

By 2015, GIDC is planning to convert 50% of government businesses into cloud-service-enable environment.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
①(PLANNING STAGE)

One of the challenges at the planning stage was intense resistance from ministries against GIDC (Government Integrated Data Center) construction and conflict of interest of them in regard to it.

Some ministries opposed to the idea of GIDC due to concerns over the consolidation of ICT departments and reduction of organizations and authorities.

However, proactive supports of the President and various endeavors to resolve such conflicts such as holding regular meetings with prospective client organizations finally makes its way to narrow the gaps.

In regard to GIDC ownership, the President assessed the strengths of relevant ministries and designated it to the one with relative advantages in ICT capability.

②(IMPLEMENTATION STAGE)

Disputes among stakeholders and fierce competition among local governments to be selected as the GIDC site were the major setbacks at the stage of GIDC construction and system migration.

“Site Selection Team”, consistig experts from various sectors, was formed to conduct a survey and evaluation to decide the location, thereby successfully resolving conflicts between organizations.

Government managed to reach a consensus with stakeholders through a number of public hearings, briefings, seminars and the formation of the cooperative body with agencies.

③(OPERATION STAGE)

Physical and cyber threats have become one of the key challenges since the establishment of GIDC.

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) against various crisis scenarios was formulated to respond to any possible physical and cyber threat.

By doing so, the staff of GIDC has succeeded in earning the trust from its client as time goes by.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
①(FINANCIAL RESOURCE)

This initiative was mainly funded through the national budget.

According to ROI (Return on Investment) and TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) analysis on GIDC (Government Integrated Data Center) by an external research institute, the cumulative investment made to GIDC project as of 2010 (e.g. construction, ICT installation, migration and operation maintenance) amounted to about USD 750 million, which was fully recovered in early 2009. By the end of 2010, with cumulative benefits (e.g. security, disaster recovery, cost reduction and operation stability) reaching USD 0.9 billion, management profit worth of USD 190 million was generated.

②(TECHNICAL AND HUMAN RESOURCE)

Public officials from 48 central government agencies actively participated in the design and construction of GIDC which is currently operated by NCIA affiliated with Ministry of Public Administration and Security (MOPAS).

The entire process of GIDC implementation from planning, design, construction to operation involved participation of experts from academia, research centers and companies to support decision-making and project execution.

In particular, technical support is provided by local ICT companies in Korea. Currently, over half of GIDC operation is outsourced to ICT vendors selected through the open bidding process, and the contract with NCIA is renewed on a yearly or biyearly basis.

GIDC also works close with the police, military and fire stations to keep physical threats at bay. To respond against cyber threats, GIDC shares the critical information with National Intelligent Service, Korea Internet Security Agency and Korea Local Information Research and Development Institute in real time.

GIDC also signed MOUs with 16 private companies specialized in the area of cyber security for joint response to the threats.

Furthermore, GIDC has made significant contribution to the ICT industry growth and job creation in the provincial areas by signing MOUs with 39 institutes including universities, research centers and academic institutes in the city of Daejeon and Gwangju, where two centers are located.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
①(SUSTAINABILITY)

Business processes of governments around the globe are evolving their ways to ICT-based. Moreover, people are rapidly adopting themselves in new portable devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs .

In this context, government and public demands for e-government services are only to grow, and most of them would desire to receive comprehensive services.

Based on this perspective, Korean GIDC (Government Integrated Data Center) model, which serves as the integrated back office for ICT infrastructure, data and services of the e-government, will continue to be expanded and disseminated.

GIDC will assist governments to standardize and automate all systems and processes of e-governments, thereby linking and consolidating data and services.

Promoting e-government through GIDC is far more effective way to expand e-government system than individual ministry-based approach, and economic benefit can be maximized in parallel.

②(TRANSFERABILITY)

Having acquired international certificates (e.g. ISO9001 and ISO 20000 for ICT infrastructure management and ICT service, G-ISMS of ISO27000 for security, and BS25999 for disaster management), NCIA (National Computing and Information Agency) has proved itself for its world-class e-government practices which can be transmitted to other countries.

Its excellence was recognized again by receiving 2010 FutureGov Asia Pacific Best Data Center Award and 2011 ICT Service Management (ICTSM) Excellent Organization Award.

As many of 1,069 senior public officials from 101 countries of different continents - Asia (e.g. Mongolia, Nepal, Vietnam, Brunei, Indonesia and India, Bangladesh), Europe (e.g. Bulgaria, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Italy), Latin America (e.g. Paraguay, Peru, Panama and Costa Rica), Africa (e.g. Tunisia, Kenya, Morocco, Republic of South Africa) and Middle East (e.g. the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia) - paid visit to NCIA to benchmark Korean GIDC model.

Far from simply introducing GIDC model to other nations, NCIA went further to associate it with ODA projects for developing countries, formulated master plans and provided necessary funding and technology. Using this procedure, it has supported countries to adopt optimal GIDC model that can fit their local environment.

For instance, Mongolia, Nepal and Vietnam have already kicked off GIDC construction initiative using the ODA (Official Development Assistance) provided by the Korean government, and a number of other countries are either undertaking a feasibility study or have included the GIDC initiative in their e-government master plan.

③(EXPANSION BY STAGES)

Korean GIDC is the large-scaled IDC (Internet Data Center) model which comprehensively operates the e-government systems of all the central government agencies.

However, each country can choose to build a GIDC by stages according to their current condition of ICT infrastructure and e-government maturity level.

In other words, they can either expand the GIDC gradually to other government agencies based on the ones built by certain ministries, who are more influential and passionate, with their own affiliated institutes only or can develop ICT in wider range based on the ones which are set up by other ministries.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
GIDC (Government Integrated Data Center) successfully integrated ICT resources (e.g. hardware, software, network and database) and provided them to government agencies so that it was able to be the world-best e-government with great transparency, productivity and convenience.

①(LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNIACATION)

Behind the successful implementation of GIDC, there was consistent and strong national leadership. In addition to it, proper communication strategies to resolve conflicts and disputes between different agencies and stakeholders were also important elements for it to reach its success.

②(PARTNERSHIP)

Partnership with the private sector was one of the crucial parts. NCIA actively engaged local enterprises in the entire process from GIDC planning, construction to operation in order to overcome limited expertise of public officials in the ICT field, which created a win-win synergy effect for both GIDC and local companies to advance their technical expertise one step further.

③(IMPLEMENTATION BY STAGES)

The Korean government strategically chose to build a GIDC by stages to efficiently invest the government funds. Therefore, three centers have been constructed in sequence accordingly.

Especially in the period of setting up the second and the third one, NCIA could minimize the trial and error not only in the constructing phase but also in the operational stage by taking all the lessons learned from the first experience which have led GIDC to be able to institute more perfect data centers.

④(LATEST TREND ADAPTABILITY)

It is equally important to quickly adopt latest technology and evolve itself in tandem with technological growth. In this regard, GIDC preemptively adopted up-to-date technologies such as green ICT, cloud computing and mobile computing and take the initiative to proliferate them across the government.

⑤(INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION)

As the first attempt to start GIDC, NCIA has spared no effort to share its achievement, know-hows and trials & errors from its experience with countries who want to develop mature e-governmentns.


We are confident that the Korean GIDC can be one of the effective tools for a country to drive the development of e-government. We are fully committed ourselves to share visions with many countries and lead the development of e-government.

It is our sincere hope that our experiences and accomplishment can be leveraged to bridge the digital divide of the world and achieve co-prosperity.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Ministry of Public Administration and Security
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Seon Yeo Min
Title:   Deputy Director  
Telephone/ Fax:   +82-42-250-5270 / +82-42-250-5298
Institution's / Project's Website:   http://korea.ncia.go.kr
E-mail:   kbs7722@korea.kr  
Address:   755 Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-gu
Postal Code:   305-718
City:   Daejeon
State/Province:  
Country:  

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