IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

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.

Kerlink  is teaming up with Vietnamese IoT startup Cloud Energy in building new solutions to meet demand for IoT services in rural areas around Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), expanding on their earlier collaboration on smart-building and energy-management projects in the city of nearly 9 million people.

The two companies recently developed and deployed a fully wireless LoRaWAN network to monitor and manage a 900 kWp solar-power installation on a mushroom farm 80 km from the city. The installation of the wireless solar-power system was chosen by NG Investment for its superior advantages: stability of data reading, ability to connect to different inverter brands and the cost savings on investment and maintenance.

The forum is designed to discuss prospects of introducing e-government cloud computing in Saudi Arabia. It will provide a rich environment for discussion and exchange of experience relevant to this concept. The forum will seek ways to introduce this concept in e-government services. Government trends will be reviewed in addition to the best international experience and practices. During the forum major features of the second action plan will be highlighted. Prospects of creating and delivering cloud computing services to government agencies will be discussed.

EMC Hosts Third Edition of Public Sector Mega Workshop; Highlights Growing Interest Among Public Sector Entities in KSA to adopt Blended Cloud Models to Meet Changing Customer Requirements in the New Era of Mobile, Cloud and Big Data

In line with its commitment to contribute to the government and community in Saudi Arabia, EMC hosted the third edition of its Annual Arabic Public Sector Mega Workshop to showcase latest technologies and discuss how they can help redefine the future of public services and national administration.

The Government of New South Wales is moving towards managing the cost of running ICT infrastructure while delivering agency-wide savings.

Experts from the UK and the United States gathered to share views on current trends in the global shared service and BPO industry at a reception hosted by Invest Lithuania, at the new premises of the Lithuanian Embassy in London on April 17, writes LETA/ELTA.

Microsoft-based cloud platform could end the security concerns.

With India making tremendous growth in the state-owned enterprises, banking and smart cities, Microsoft has come down to government doorsteps requesting it to consider using Microsoft’s cloud platform so as to minimize the challenges of both storage and security.

The chief legal officer of Microsoft, Brad Smith who recently met Communications and Information Technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad put forward a proposal to consider using Microsoft-based cloud platform.

Speaking to over 100 city leaders across Asia Pacific, Sjostrom highlights the three phases cities generally undergo in leveraging technology to transform citizens’ lives and solve urban challenges.

One area of the business that poses a particular challenge is onsite time and attendance reporting. Conventional systems are only adding to the confusion, and in a climate where clarity and efficiency can make the difference to a construction firm’s bottom line, it’s high time they were reassessed.

FutureGov spoke to Stela Mocan, Executive Director of the e-Government Centre, about the development and implementation of the major e-government projects, such as Government Cloud, or as it’s called in Moldova, M-Cloud.

Malta merits such an investment, having placed first in EU eGovernment Benchmarking in 2010, ranked fifth highest in the percentage of employees with ICT skills in Europe, and fourth among European countries in terms of eSkills activities by the government. The innovative deal is the brainchild of Claudio Grech, CEO of MITA, the same person who for a short while acted as main negotiator on behalf of the government on the multi-million euro residential ICT office complex (SmartCity) being built at Ricasoli by the Gulf Arab corporation Tecom. Visiting MITA’s website one appreciates its three strategic drivers, which are job creation, support of education and development, and technology. When fully functional the Microsoft innovation centre will, in turn, save millions a year in licence fees and pave the way for trained ICT workers in the digital economy.

The ICT journey of Malaysia’s Melaka State Government is typical – it also faces the challenges of having information and systems in silos. The ICT division, which handles most IT needs centrally, has started to control and consolidate its assets. A Common data centre and a disaster recovery centre are being built; standards are being put in; and effective management practices are being introduced and evaluated.

It's a pleasure to address you all today, on the crucial issue of the Cloud. The question I'd like to answer this afternoon is: why do we need a European Cloud strategy? And I'm going to take that question in three parts.

First, why the Cloud?

That's a very good question. Often I meet people who don't really know what it is. Fundamentally, the Cloud is a different model for providing IT infrastructure, platforms or software. Where those things are provided centrally, and distributed to end users over a network; like over the Internet network.

Together with these RFPs, a policy framework is being developed by the Department of Internal Affairs in tandem with core agencies. This department is expected to report back to relevant ministers by the end of 2012 about broad-based cloud adoption plans.

Cloud computing will enable agencies to pay per-use for ICT products and services delivered through networks, rather than maintain their own ICT infrastructure, according to NZ’s Minister for Internal Affairs, Chris Tremain.

New Zealand's Prime Minister, John Key, had been in close touch with the Internet giant Google representatives, in order to beef up the process of going digital, therefore enhancing the efficiency of public services - at the same time reducing the cost-structure, substantially.

Cloud Computing is simply the use of hardware and software that are delivered as a service over the Internet. In 2011, according to Johnson, federal government’s estimated spend on data centres was a whopping N19.4 billion. This figure, she reckons is “unsustainable” and must be managed in the face of growing ICT usage and in the interest of judicious use of public funds.

Cloud computing will enable government agencies to pay per-use for ICT products and services delivered through networks, rather than maintain their own ICT infrastructure.

Case studies conducted by industry analyst Ovum into cloud computing implementations “illustrate that benefits were greater than expected, while risks and difficulties were lower than typically experienced by traditional ICT projects”, says Ovum’s Steve Hodgkinson.