Get to know the Platform Services and Platform Operations teams
We’re here to support you through the Private Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) process.
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Who we are
We are the Platform Services and Platform Operations teams, part of the Ministry of Citizens’ Services.
Our purpose
We’re here to meet the needs of product teams working on both public-facing and internal services.
We strive to:
- Build a constantly improving application platform for delivery of modern government services
- Inspire a DevOps culture shift, which values open-source, collaboration, communication and speed
- Create a community that takes care of each other and works together to solve the unsolvable
Our values
We prioritize 6 key values on the platform: Reliability, trust, security, quick setup, continual improvement and product team enablement.
We work hard to support and deliver on these values, so that the platform can support you and your team.
Reliability
On the B.C. Government Private Cloud PaaS, your team will benefit from a platform that experiences very little downtime. We have a dedicated team in place to monitor and support the platform 24/7.
You can check the current and historical status of the platform at any time on the platform status dashboard.
For additional reliability, you’re also encouraged to follow resiliency best practices when building your application.
Trust
The B.C. Government Private Cloud PaaS is your opportunity to join a growing community of open-source product teams building their applications in the cloud.
As of January 2022, 17 different ministries, agencies and Crown corporations have chosen to host their applications in the B.C. Government Private Cloud PaaS. Together they have deployed over 280 applications, with more on the way every day.
Read case studies from other teams who are building in the B.C. Government Private Cloud PaaS.
Security
We work hard to keep the platform secure and compliant with government standards. To maintain security and privacy, we continuously monitor the platform and proactively patch security vulnerabilities. We also provide tools and resources you can use to help keep your application security and privacy compliant.
Learn more about security and privacy in the B.C. Government Private Cloud PaaS.
Quick setup
Once you’ve completed the B.C. Government Private Cloud PaaS onboarding process, it only takes 10 minutes to gain access to the platform.
The speed at which you deploy your applications is up to you, and depends on the experience level of your team. On average, it takes product teams seven days to deploy an application that meets resiliency, security and privacy standards.
Continual improvement
We follow the DevOps process of continual improvement. That means we’re always looking for new ways to improve your experience on the platform.
We’re regularly adding new tools and resources that you can leverage for your application. We also collect community feedback and research to continually improve our infrastructure, products and tools.
Team enablement
We provide the platform then get out of your way, so you can focus on building your application.
All our products and tools are built to be as self-serve as possible. In OpenShift, your team will have the freedom to work independently from other applications. You’ll provision your own storage, configure your applications to your specifications and deploy on your schedule.
To help you, we provide a collection of self-serve tools and configurations that improve:
- Security and privacy
- Monitoring
- Access control
- Resiliency
- Cost efficiency
Learn more about the platform’s self-serve tools.
We also provide introductory OpenShift training during onboarding, to provide guidance on best practices for building and deploying on the platform.
Our partners
We partner with several teams and organizations across the BC Public Service to deliver cloud products that meet the diverse needs of B.C. ministries and product teams.
OCIO Enterprise Hosting
The Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) Enterprise Hosting branch provides standardized IT infrastructure and related support for B.C. Government applications. Their services include S3-based object storage that is highly-available, scalable, secure and fully managed. OCIO object storage provides Enterprise features and is best suited to store large amounts of unstructured data like documents, files and images.
OCIO object storage is available to all product teams building in OpenShift and gives you remote access storage over the Internet.
Learn more about OCIO object storage services. (IDIR required)
B.C. Government Public Cloud
The B.C. Government Public Cloud team offers hosting for cloud-native applications in the public cloud space. They provide access to Enterprise multi-tenant environments in Secure Environment Accelerators (SEA) with basic procurement, security and privacy compliance. Currently the only full offering available is the Amazon Web Services (AWS) SEA.
This is a great option for:
- Experienced product teams who want to trail-blaze and try new technologies
- Early adopters of cloud-managed service compute and storage technologies
In the public cloud SEA environments, you can benefit from a range of safe and modern hosting options, selected for compatibility within the SEA.
B.C. Government Software as a Service
The Software as a Service (SaaS) Adoption team is responsible for improving the experience for ministries seeking to adopt cloud-based SaaS solutions.
They take an enabling approach to support ministries in successfully adopting SaaS solutions. Within this enabling approach, the SaaS Adoption team proactively assists ministries in adopting the cloud-based software and application solutions that best meet their needs. They do this within the context of procurement policy, working towards a coherent technology ecosystem.
Services provided by the team include:
- Exploring procurement strategies that reduce effort for end users
- Developing and implementing solutions to enable ministries to self-service subscription management
- Ensuring awareness of SaaS solutions that have established compliance assessments or Enterprise agreements
- Creating and building awareness of a self-service SaaS directory
- Creating and managing communities of practice
Learn more about procuring SaaS products in the B.C. government.
BCDevExchange
The BCDevExchange is a supportive community of developers, product owners and DevOps professionals who collaborate to deliver better digital services in the B.C. government. We work closely with the BCDevExchange community to enable the sharing of information and support between ministries and teams.
You can join this vibrant community on Rocket.Chat, to connect with product teams across the B.C. Public Service.
Exchange Lab
The Exchange Lab brings together Agile methodology and DevOps processes to help digital project teams understand and adopt new approaches to teamwork and technology.
Over the course of a year, resident teams develop and deliver a digital product in a supported environment, and have the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with other product teams. If you’re new to Agile or DevOps, the Lab can provide the guidance and support your team needs to build and deliver your digital services.
Learn more about the Exchange Lab.
Single Sign-On with Keycloak
The Pathfinder Single Sign-On (SSO) Keycloak service, built using Red Hat SSO, is an access management tool used to secure access to B.C. government services and applications. It allows you to implement end-user authentications in your applications (log in functionality) so you can focus on developing your application.
The Pathfinder SSO service is offered to B.C. government product teams who are building cloud-native web or mobile applications.
Learn more about using SSO Keycloak in the B.C. government.
Stay connected
Platform newsletter
To receive notifications about important changes and maintenance activities that may impact your application, subscribe to our platform newsletter.
Platform community meetups
We also recommend that your team attends Platform community meetups. At meetups, we share information about new tools and services on the platform and discuss application development and security best practices. Meetups also feature demonstrations from other product teams and guest speakers.
Send us an email to PlatformServicesTeam@gov.bc.ca get the calendar invitation link.
Stack Overflow
The B.C. Government Stack Overflow group is a private space in Stack Overflow for B.C. Public Service developers and other technical roles. Here, you can ask and answer questions and support your colleagues in the B.C. Government developer community.