TURKSTAT: Fast, Secure Data Exchange with webMethods

• Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
• Cybersecurity & Privacy - Cloud Security

• System Integration

TURKSTAT, the Turkish Statistical Institute, is responsible for Turkey’s official statistics on a wide range of topics. As part of its corporate e-transformation, the institute aimed to provide fast, easy and secure access to statistics needed by different interest groups. Manual methods of sharing this information were insufficient. TURKSTAT needed to provide data to outside groups categorically, according to user needs, and in a dynamic and sustainable way. As more organizations needed to share data, TURKSTAT found using manual methods or writing code was inadequate. The institute urgently needed a high-speed data exchange platform. Additionally, security was a key concern. TURKSTAT has always been a trusted institution. Decisionmakers are confident in statistical information published by TURKSTAT, and providers of data are certain that their privacy is well-protected. That level of trust could not change.

The Turkish Statistical Institute— TURKSTAT—was established to respond emerging information needs, improve administrative records and produce statistics consistent with international standards. The organization is responsible for official statistics production and coordinating official statistics produced by other agencies. Through 26 regional offices, TURKSTAT collects information from the individuals, households, public institutions and organizations, compiles this information using scientific methods and makes it available to public. Since 1926, TURKSTAT has endeavored to develop a modern statistical structure for Turkey. The institute’s main objective is to produce data comparable with international standards, to increase confidence in official statistics and to spread the use of official statistics. As such, TURKSTAT plays an important role in the country’s decision-making process.

TURKSTAT implemented the webMethods Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) because it composes fast, efficient and reliable Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) layers, and it produces and consumes Web services in a few steps. FTP, file and calendar functions can be developed with simple interfaces. With a new service-oriented data exchange platform, TURKSTAT can now securely and easily share data and develop data consuming/sharing Web services. TURKSTAT also deployed SecureSpan Gateway from Software AG, an XML appliance that provides advanced security and accelerates securing Web service communication at the edge of the network. Using mediation tools, TURKSTAT can provide accurate, consistent, up-to-date and traceable statistical data. Services produced in this context were designed as Web services, and interest groups with any platform can use them.

• Safer, faster access to information—internally and externally—on a single platform
• Establishment of a portfolio of re-usable and traceable services
• Access to information is now dynamic—not static

• Average service development time reduced from three days to one
• Average time and cost savings up to 60 percent per service