Page 17 - Informatics, July 2020

IN FOCUS

Virtual Private

Network Services

Technology that enabled the government to work-from-home

-Browser based access with no additional client
virtual private network (VPN) extends -SMS/Email/App OTP Based user authentication
a private network across a public net-
work and enables users to send and Desktop
A eive data across shared or public
r
ec
networks as if their computing devices were Laptop
directly connected to the private network. Ap-
plications running across a VPN may therefore VPN Server
benefit from the functionality, security, and Hand-held Application Server in
management of the private network. In other NIC Data Centre
words, it allows users to work from home like
they were in office. The new WebVPN offering is
easy to use even for non-tech savvy users and Secure VPN Tunnel NICNET
augments the security of the system by means Normal Application Traffic
of two factors of authentication.
hours (which were pretty long due to the emer- unwavering commitment of the team to do their
NIC has been providing VPN services to us-
ers for over 15 years but never has been it used gency) and carry out all these activities with the bit in these times of difficulty. The unflinching
more than during the current pandemic. The existing resources as we couldn’t hire immedi- faith, support and encouragement from the se-
idea was to provide secure access to critical in- ately. The pressure of expectation of delivery niors made it easy.
ternal applications like eOffice to government was immense. A special mention and grateful appreciation
officers and staff working from home. The chal- The entire team came together like fam- have to be given to our extended team from Ac-
lenge was growth in the number of users who ily and worked days and nights for at least a cops Systems, the supplier of WebVPN software.
have to use VPN. Fortunately, we were prepared month to get it under control. People were The commitment and support from their man-
to scale up the resources and cater to the in- working shifts together without qualms or agement and engineering staff has been ex-
creased demands. complaint. We added servers at late night and traordinary throughout and even more during
There were two major tasks that needed to tested it till the early morning. The account re- the pandemic. They didn’t work like suppliers
be managed to achieve the aforementioned quests came in thousands each day. The team but as a team. They were stretched as all their
goals viz. scaling up the infrastructure and cre- worked tirelessly right from the early morning customers needed extra effort but never did
ating user accounts which came in deluges. to late into the night till accounts for that day it hinder their assistance to us irrespective of
The major challenges were to upscale without were made and sent. Now we realize it was no the day or time of day. Their contribution to the
taking a downtime especially during business rocket science or master strategy but just the endeavour is unmatched.
1 lakh+ 1000+ 4 hours

VPN accounts created during Ministries/ Depts/Organizations Average time spent on VPN per
lockdown period served user per day
6 hours 99.9%

1000+
Accounts created per day Av. turnaround time for account Uptime of service during the
creation during peak load lockdown
300+ 10,000+ R.S. Mani Syed Mahmood Hasan
30,000+
Unique applications published Average number of users con- Number of VPN trouble tickets Dy. Director General Scientist- C
nected per day resolved during lockdown rsm@nic.in hasan@nic.in

Covid-19 Special Issue informatics.nic.in 17