IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The newly released toolkit is an offshoot of close collaboration with Leading IT Organizations that have used OpenNebula to build large-scale production cloud infrastructures in industry and academia. As a result, the toolkit includes features that many enterprise IT organizations need for private and hybrid cloud adoption.

Orange Business Services announced that it will design and build a new data center to provide cloud services for Egypt’s ‘New Administrative Capital’.

The project will be implemented in collaboration with Orange Egypt, who will supply the required infrastructure and services, following their appointment as the project’s prime contractor by Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD) – owner and developer of the New Administrative Capital.

Im Bundeskanzleramt teilt man die positive Cloud-Sichtweise des Bundesrechenzentrums, ist derzeit aber noch mit Überzeugungsarbeit bei den einzelnen Abteilungen beschäftigt. Eine Arbeitsgruppe zwischen Bund, Ländern, Städten und Gemeinden soll nun möglichst rasch die offenen Fragen aus technischer, organisatorischer, wirtschaftlicher, aber vor allem auch rechtlicher Sicht klären.

“Vendors need to think more carefully about the people in government they’re talking to, which is usually CIOs. This is preaching to the converted,” she told FutureGov.

“Cloud is still just an idea for Philippine government agencies, but most CIOs recognise the long-term benefits. It is the legislators and policymakers who still need convincing,” Guillermo remarked.

The secretary expressed these views while inaugurating the RapidCompute, Pakistan’s first cloud computing service, in a ceremony at a local hotel. He said the government had already initiated an e-government system.

VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW), a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC), the IT and telecommunications service provider for the Government of Pakistan, to drive digital transformation within the public sector as part of the government’s Digital Pakistan initiative and the country’s push towards a digital nation. The agreement will enable NTC, the first cloud-based data center in the public sector, to tap on VMware solutions to modernize existing IT infrastructure and accelerate network extension to unserved and underserved districts under the National Data Centre plan.

The rapid transformation of Pakistan towards a digitally enabled nation is anchored by the government’s commitment to a digital future. The government is the first in the region to transit to an e-governance model as Internet penetration in the nation skyrockets. In 2016 alone, the number of internet users in Pakistan increased by 20 per cent, double the global average growth rate.[1] The mobile-first nature of Pakistan is clearly evident with close to three in four internet users in Pakistan accessing the internet through their mobile phones, as compared to 27 percent via desktops.

Research released by the Centre for Economics and Business Research(CEBR) on behalf of EMC, entitled 'The Cloud Dividend Report', argues that although the cloud will benefit the UK economy by £26bn between now and 2015, its share of the cloud market will be smaller than that of France, Germany, Italy and Spain. However, this could be reversed if the government delivers on its promise to increase superfast broadband access to every part of the UK.

Long has the country held the reputation for its young, skilled, and technology-enabled population. In fact, the annual We Are Social’s digital report regularly ranks the country as among the most active internet and social media users on the planet.

This bespeaks of strong economic fundamentals that could carry the country’s economic narrative to further heights post-pandemic. Given that the current pandemic situation is controlled, the World Bank sees the Philippine economy expanding at 4.7% in 2021, before accelerating to 5.9% in 2022 and 6.0% in 2023, contributing to renewed progress in poverty reduction.

Zain KSA has launched “Zain Cloud” service dedicated to businesses, SMEs, entrepreneurs, and government sectors in partnership with AliBaba Cloud, one the world’s largest cloud computing companies.

Chief Business and Wholesale Officer at Zain KSA Eng. Saad Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Sadhan explained that Zain KSA Cloud is distinguished as a public locally based cloud in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is easy and completely secure, and is compatible with the Kingdom’s data protection requirements.

A survey of CIOs by Gartner's Executive Programs reveals that enterprises in the Middle East and Africa are increasing IT spending with CIO IT budgets expected to grow by 14.3 percent this year. Areas of priority for the kingdom are seen as cloud computing, virtualisation and e-Government.

The outsourcing, managed services, and datacenter services market in Saudi Arabia is expected to total $570.6 million in 2015, up 16.2 per cent year on year, according to a recent study.

The market is set to grow 16.2 per cent year on year, primarily driven by increased spending on network and desktop outsourcing and hosting infrastructure services, stated the study published by International Data Corporation (IDC).

What makes a smart city? Some may think of futuristic scenes like flying cars, massive screens or gleaming skyscrapers, but it is what lies underneath that makes or breaks this dream.

Speedy and stable connectivity serves as the backbone for growth, innovation and collaboration. Emerging technologies will rely on a robust and reliable connectivity infrastructure, which enables businesses, start-ups, researchers and professionals to communicate and collaborate.

Huge cost savings will be achieved through standardizing on single systems for functions like email, and by reducing the number of data-centres from over 300 to less than 20.

In particular Liseanne identifies four primary ways that shared services will shape the future of public services:

• generating economic development,
• driving mass collaboration,
• fostering legitimacy and
• enabling front-office agility.

Singapore has slipped to fourth place from third in the Cloud Readiness Index 2012, dragged down by below average scores in data privacy, and power grid and green policy.

According to the report by Asia's Cloud Computing Association (ACCA) released Tuesday, the country scored the highest in areas such as data sovereignty, e-government and ICT prioritization, and intellectual property (IP) protection. It ranked second international connectivity and fourth for broadband quality.

The Singapore government has announced plans to build the "Central G-Cloud," described as a private government cloud to be used anywhere within the government "where security and governance requirements cannot be met by public clouds," according to James Kang, an official with the Chief Information Office of Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority (IDA).

Speaking to over 240 public sector leaders at the 11th annual FutureGov Forum Singapore, Mohamad emphasised the growing importance of ICT in Singapore’s journey of becoming an intelligent city.

At the launch of IBM Cloud Labs in Singapore on May 4th, Khoong Hock Yun, Assistant CEO, Infrastructure and Services Development Group, IDA, outlined the rationale behind the initiative: “In Cloud Computing, we have an emerging ecosystem that can be tapped into.

Salesforce's Lindsey Armstrong notes that the Cloud 2 capability is one that is inherently social, collaborative, and delivers real-time access to data and information across new mobile devices.

'The first phase of cloud computing was about leveraging technologies that were low cost, fast, and easy to use on your desktop,' Ms Armstrong, Salesforce's executive VP for Asia-Pacific and Japan, informs BizIT.

The Singapore government has unleashed tenders for S$1.2 billion (£600,000) worth of technology projects for 2012.

During 2011 the IT-centric government awarded 638 infocomm contracts worth more than S$1.12 billion.

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA),said that the new tenders would open up opportunities in areas like learning management system, data analytics, e-services and portals, and business process management.