Cloud Use for Official Statistics

Introduction

At the January 2022 meeting of the BSTN core team, the idea was launched to organize a physical meeting (or meetings) on BSTN-related issues. After some initial brainstorming the idea became more concrete in the form of a half-day event back-to-back with the ModernStats World Workshop, that is organized in Belgrade in June 2022. This brief note outlines the current ideas..

Subject of the session and main areas of interest

• Many statistical offices (both national and international) around the world are investigating the use of cloud technologies. This poses a lot of questions due to the novelty of the topic and the many different issues that come in to play. The aim of the event is to explore such issues, learn from experiences already gained by others and identify areas of common interest.
• The main areas of interest that have been identified so far are
  • IT and architecture: platforms, performance, standards, interoperability, …
  • Data science: methods, tools, algorithms, …
  • Preconditions: legal, security, ethics, access modalities, …
  • Usage: interaction with users, usability, data sets, …
  • Finance: initial investment, transition costs, operational costs, …

Goal and expected outcome

• The ultimate goal of the event would be to take steps towards a better understanding of cloud technologies from an official statistics production perspective.
• This might lead to more coordinated collaboration on statistical cloud use, which may take shape as a HLGMOS project, BSTN activity or other.
• The expected outcome of the event is a set of typical cloud use cases in an official statistics production setting scoping main cases, mapping them on the data production cycle, identifying challenges and opportunities, and first ideas on the potential of future collaborations between HLG-MOS partners.

Approach

• The session will be semistructured: a number of participants are invited to present their thoughts and experiences to start the discussions. This should lead up to an open dialogue and discussions on the main areas identified.
• Participants are mostly from the statistical community. Some specialists from the private sector, government or academia may be invited to share ideas.
• The proposed meeting room allows for 25 (physical) participants at most. In case of more interest, the BSTN core team will decide on participation. The possibility of online participation is being investigated.
• A facilitator will be sought to moderate the session.

Venue, date and time

• Halfday session in Belgrade, 29 June 2022, 13:00-16:00 CE(S)T.