The lab is part of the government’s plans to enhance the use of cloud computing in Taiwan. Earlier this month, the government announced a NT$7 billion (US$237.3 million) cloud-building programme to encourage growth in Taiwan’s information and communication technology sector and improve government services and functions.
Two task forces will be established, with Research, Development and Evaluation Commission leading application development and Ministry of Economic Affairs taking charge of industry promotion within this project.
Chang San-Cheng, Minister without Portfolio, announced that “a key project goal is to re-engineer and streamline administrative procedures at all levels of government for better efficiency and transparency. This will enhance information sharing and deliver seamless collaboration between agencies.”
The programme plans to build 11 cloud computing application systems for the administration, and will provide services to the departments of agriculture, food safety, health care, environment, education, disaster relief, geographic information, policing and transportation. Sectors such as green energy, infrastructure, R&D and software design will be targeted to develop the services.
The operations and testing results of the Cloud Open Lab will be used to develop infrastructure for the planned cloud-building programme. Chang said that by providing pre-testing, the new platform will reduce risk in the procurement of information hardware and software for the project, and will allow fair market competition among solution providers.
The results of the lab will also be used to set up open-bid rules to select providers for the programme, and create a practical roadmap for the setup of common infrastructure for the application systems. Chang said that currently, the government is considering leasing internet data centres instead of establishing its own infrastructure.
Another aspect of the government’s efforts to encourage growth in cloud-computing is its plan to open several cloud computing-related projects for bidding to operators. According to Chang, the Ministry of Economic Affairs will support local software companies developing cloud solutions, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will work with the companies to help them internationalise their business.
In addition to the government-wide plans, the Department of Health of Taiwan has announced its intention to use cloud computing in healthcare by moving towards cloud storage of individual health information and medical records.
The new platform that will be developed will increase efficiency and patient service in healthcare by facilitating management of personal digital medical records, eliminating overlapping medical treatment, and promoting public health. When the project is launched, a patient who registers with a personal account will be allows access to the platform to store, manage and share personal health information.
“The government hopes to see personal health information stored in the cloud and medical records exchanged between hospitals,” Chang said. However, he acknowledged that information privacy and security remain serious public concerns that need to be accounted for.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Sumedha Jalote
Quelle/Source: futureGov, 27.09.2012
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