Brave Generals: interview with the deputy head of the VI Department of SMD, gen. Camillo Sileo

(To Andrea Cucco)
12/05/17

"VI ° department of SMD - C4I and transformation" says nothing to a layman: military bureaucratese ... For those who live in an Italy indebted beyond belief that finds it hard to recover and in which disillusionment and anger are the first party , can represent a virtuous example.

When we mere mortals buy a good or a service we clearly understand the economic sacrifice that the expense entails. When you spend money that is not your own "it may be" that this sensitivity fades.

This is not the case for many men in our armed forces, those who in the morning make the military salute to the flag and not to the mirror. Among them is General Camillo Sileo, an officer who has been fighting for years to protect security and avoid unnecessary waste in the defense administration. Rumors ironically underline how much sympathy the general collects among those who do not have the same ethics and - above all - do not want to "face" (compromising their career) one of the most influential lobbies in the country ...

In times of spending review, cost savings for operating systems and / or programs are essential. Can you tell the Defense strategy about free and open source software?

The LIBREDIFESA project originates from a financial planning document "Guidelines and Criteria for the Use of Financial Resources" signed, in February 2015, by the Chief of the Major Staff of the Defense pro-tempore (Admiral Binelli Mantelli).

This document indicated, as a cost reduction tool for the defense administration, the possibility of introducing the use of Open Source Software (OSS) products to be dedicated to individual productivity as an alternative to the proprietary software linked to recurring licensing costs. .

In this context we carried out a comparative study of the MS Office functionalities and the main open source individual productivity software available. The choice for performance affinities fell on LIBREOFFICE.

This choice allowed the Defense to reach other important objectives such as:

  • adherence to current legislation (Art. 68 of the Digital Administration Code - comparative analysis of solutions - which provides that, for the same performance, it is mandatory for the PA to prefer open source products);
  • adoption of an internationally recognized standard such as Open Document Format (ODT) which will guarantee us the legibility of digital native documents over time (which is not always guaranteed with proprietary formats);
  • no lock-in by a supplier (the odt standard is the basis of over one hundred individual productivity software).

Naturally, the adoption of new individual productivity software involves careful study, a well-structured project and continuous information sharing within the organization.

So the strategy was to analyze the various aspects that this activity involved and define a "design" suitable for the purpose and well structured.

The first aspect analyzed was the verification of the security of the software identified. In this context, the internal governing bodies have given us their "clearance".

We examined whether there were similar experiences in Europe and in Italy. From this discussion emerged the opportunity to enter into an agreement, the 15 September 2015, with the non-profit association "LIBREITALIA" that free of charge contributed to the realization of this project.

In particular, we have tailored the method suggested by the "The Document Foundation" (the international non-profit association that develops LIBREOFFICE) to the needs of the defense. In particular we have:

  • set up, at inter-agency level, a project management structure with the task of following the entire cycle of adoption of Libreoffice in Defense;
  • carried out a communication activity at the management level, together with Libreitalia, through conferences in which the project was illustrated;
  • dedicated a high visibility space on the defense intranet portal and we involved the users with an e-mail addressing the fundamental points of the project;
  • made a careful analysis on how MS Office was used by the users, on which management software impacted the impacts, the level of training of personnel on such software;
  • carried out tests on compatibility and interoperability;
  • trained our trainers, our installers and some IT representatives thanks to courses provided free by Libreitalia. For the final users, instead, the Army Transmission and Computer Science School, always in collaboration with Libreitalia, has created an e-learning course. This course can be used free of charge by other PAs.

In addition to the Libredifesa project, our organization has also implemented "Zimbra" as open source software for the management of the E-mail of civil defense personnel together with the individual e-mail boxes of the Italian Army personnel. These numbers are important (we are talking about 150.000 mailboxes).

Recently, Microsoft programs have been replaced with programs such as "Libre Office". How was the transition from military users accepted?

The methodology used has certainly helped to limit the hysteresis that normally a user faces when changing software. I like to remember that this happens even when there is a change to a new version of the same software because it changes the position of some "buttons" and some functions that we normally find in a precise point of the menus on the toolbar. The informative and formative work as well as the support to the users have made sure that the passage has been accepted without particular problems. The presence of IT referents in the bodies that have already adopted libreoffice allowed us to receive very few emails to the group of people dedicated to the 2nd level help desk. Finally I would like to highlight that only a part of the user makes full use of all the packages in MS Office (the whole uses the word processor "WORD" and only one 15% uses Word, the Excel and PowerPoint spreadsheet) . Finally, the similarities with LIBREOFFICE allow an easy passage in everyday use.

Can you quantify the annual savings for the administration? 

The migration project is, as mentioned, a short-medium term project (2016-2020) and provides for the adoption of Libreoffice in place of Microsoft licenses of the Office product no longer supported (in terms of security patch) from the parent company . In this context since March 2016 (start migration with pilots entities) to date we have installed about 32.000 libreoffice licenses with a saving of about 7 million. At the end of the project (100.000 licenses approximately) the savings will be around 28 million. To this, as license costs, we can also add that made with Zimbra (today 150.000 e-mail boxes) instead of Microsoft Exchange and Outlook for an estimated amount of about 7 million.

I was told by cyber experts that the security of open source programs and systems is the same - sometimes greater! - paid-for counterparts. It's true?

Speaking in these terms is very general. The security of a program is never absolute and the company structure it supports can guarantee an adequate level of security. The diffusion of a software also allows to optimize the investments of the cyber crime; less widespread software is also less desirable for hackers and therefore intrinsically "safer". Finally, since an open source program is an open source program available, it is potentially easier to identify everything that deviates from the original code and therefore potentially modified for malicious purposes.

Microsoft certainly has a dominant position in the software and application market, given the worldwide spread of its programs. Do you think that the transition to open source software can allow a freeing from Microsoft, without any loss of functionality and capacity?

Microsoft products have certainly contributed to the dissemination of automation processes and their usability have allowed a loyalty by the average user. Just think of the various certifications that use MS products (one on all the European software license commonly known as ECDL). On some products, however, there are open source software (which does not mean "free") that are comparable in terms of efficiency and usability. So some Microsoft products certainly have an alter ego in the open source "world" usable and that do not involve loss of functionality and capacity.

(photo: Defense / Defense Online)