IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

As many as 250 government departments and entities are availing the national cloud services which are being run by National Informatics Centre.

As many as 250 government departments and entities are availing the national cloud services which are being run by National Informatics Centre (NIC), Parliament was informed today.

Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government has already embarked upon the cloud computing initiative known by the name of GI Cloud (MeghRaj), which can be utilised for delivering good governance.

Cloud computing has become a buzz word in the last few years. The idea of having easy access to powerful IT solutions without the huge cost implications of IT infrastructure is indeed an impelling value proposition. The technology allows storage of data and access to software on a pay-per-use model, thus helping companies cut costs. It also promises to revolutionise e-governance initiatives and fast-track healthcare and education delivery in the country.

Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (eg, networks, servers, storage, applications, and services), that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

Cloud computing — is it beneficial? How to make it just more than efficient? Can it lead to business transformation? How easy and wise is it to walk the road where you have to follow the new fashion and be in vogue?

In the last few years there has been an intense debate about ‘cloud’, and if we look at the outcomes, one thing is clear — this technology has moved deeper into the enterprise; more IT departments are considering cloud to reduce costs and lift the return on capital employed. There are several multinational and Indian companies competing in the cloud space, developing/introducing solutions relevant for Indian customers. A recent study by Zinnov Management Consulting predicts that the total cloud spends as a percentage of the total IT spend will rise from 1.4 per cent in 2010 to 8.2 per cent in 2015.

According to CII's latest report "Cloud based services can be leveraged by the Government to launch new e-Governance initiatives quicker and with lower overhead costs. A common Cloud platform will also enable local Governments and other public agencies to adopt e-Governance for better citizen services, without requiring the setting up of significant IT infrastructure."

The Indian Government can leverage Cloud-based services to launch new e-Governance initiatives quicker for better citizen services, without the need to install significant IT infrastructure, a Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) report says.

The CII report, “The Indian Cloud Revolution”, said the data sovereignty and governance aspects, and study of the worldwide global practices relating to resolving jurisdictional conflicts will have to be taken into consideration while formulating any Cloud Policy.

Speaking at India Connect Mission seminar organised in Chandigarh, Microsoft discussed a host of areas, where it could offer solutions to help take IT to the citizens.

Discussing the usage of cloud computing, Microsoft officials maintained usage of computing services in e governance initiatives could pioneer a new chart of growth for e-governance initiatives.

Cloud computing would not only scale down the cost of operations for rolling out e-governance initiatives but also expedite the process as well.

However, he also said that it was too early to say whether it would actually be a part of the plan or not, and to what extent that role would be prevalent. “But as people start using IT as a service such as software, data centres and all other means, which are all bundled together, cloud computing is also proving to be a fairly attractive model in India. First, many people may want to use ‘pay as you go’ model and that generally appeals to the Indian economy,” he added.

The successful pilot may save the exchequer almost 50% of the Rs 1,378 crore allocated for state data centre projects, if two or more states start sharing the infrastructure. The centre is pushing other states too to use the cloud model, which enables sharing of resources (like software and hardware) already possessed by one state, with others, in a pay per use model.

Pioneer of e-Governance initiatives in Kerala, Principal Secretary (IT) of the state Ajay Kumar — has been taking up Cloud Computing for furthering the cause. The 1985 batch IAS officer has rolled technology, applied economics and business management into a single mission— to make Kerala high on Cloud computing. In a conversation with Pravin Prashant, he elaborates his plans for the state.

With ‘Cloud Computing,’ there will be no need for the government to invest on expensive computing resources, thereby helping it to use the maximum available spare capacity of its IT hardware and software investments.

The Cloud Computing, which has already become a buzzword in major IT forums, was inspired by the cloud symbol which is often used to represent the Internet in flow charts and diagrams.

Public cloud services revenue in India will reach $731 million by the end of 2015, an increase of $176 million over 2014 revenue of $555 million, according to Gartner, Inc. In 2015, public cloud services revenue is driven by high growth rates in key market segments, such as cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS), cloud management and security services, and software as a service (SaaS).

Spending on IaaS will total $100 million in 2015, an increase of 25 percent over last year. Spending on cloud management/security will grow 36.6 percent to $82 million, and SaaS will grow 33.4 percent to $302 million this year.

The project, initiated to support the implementation of the National e-Governance Plan of India (NeGP), aims to create a private cloud environment for the use of government departments and agencies at the centre and state levels.

Six of these projects will be started within just a month that will also help the government in evaluating what changes technology enhancement can bring for the improvisation of services for citizens.

In addition to these above main functions, recently BMKG has been appointed by UNESCO as one of the Regional Tsunami Service Providers together with India and Australia, and also appointed by World Meteorological Organisation as a Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre (TCWC).

The Kasumigaseki Cloud integrated the data centres of different public sector ministries, reducing excess resources and maintenance of individual systems. METI developed a web site for its national ‘Eco-Points Programme’ in three short weeks by using cloud computing technology.

Keisuke Uchiyama, an Official from the Shizuoka Prefecture, said that the system was implemented with a budget of about JPY 200 million (USD 2.6 million), and is currently hosted on Salesforce.com’s servers overseas in the U.S. and will go live when an official disaster warning is issued by the Japanese Government.

In partnership with Fujitsu, the new on-campus cloud system enables key services on the university’s homepage and other servers even during disasters or blackouts in the Kansai region.

Today ICT offers SMEs, particularly in Africa, the tools to revolutionise their business processes, and to operate just as efficiently and effectively as any world-class firm. However, according to the World Bank's Africa Competitiveness Report 2011, Africa overall has low penetration rates of most ICT tools, which is reflected in the country rankings for technological readiness.