Business

DataOne: Gov't to adopt cloud services in 2013

The Philippine Star

January 23, 2013 | 1:56pm

MANILA, Philippines - An official of an IT service provider said that the government will likely turn to the Cloud for its computing needs this year.

DataOne Asia President and CEO Cyril Rocke said the government's adoption of cloud computing technology will be one of the biggest trends in 2013, citing several compelling reasons.

â€œFirst, government agencies intend to avoid capital expenditures whenever possible, since they cause a long, tedious and sometime risky process. All capital expenditures are subject to R.A. 9184,â€ Rocke explained. â€œBecause the process is long, there is a tendency to â€˜over-procureâ€™ which results in unnecessary costs," Rocke said.

Rocke believes that the adoption of cloud computing will downsize the governmentâ€™s lengthy process of acquiring resources and services, and cut costs. Aside from this, cloud computing lets government agencies deal with reliable IT service providers, which allows them to save more time, man-hours, skills development and troubleshooting.

The subscription-based procurement of highly customizable cloud computing services also provides numerous benefits to government agencies.

â€œThey can subscribe for one month or several years, and the resources they procure can be increased or decreased on demand. Therefore, the risk of making wrong decisions is eliminated. If the wrong resources or application is procured, the engagement can be easily terminated.â€

Another compelling reason Rocke cited that will enable government agencies to turn into cloud computing is that subscription-based services save costs.

â€œIt is generally observed that about 90 percent of computer resources are never used. Eventually, they become obsolete, and will be simply replaced later without having been ever used. This is an enormous waste of public funds,â€ Rocke said.

Aside from being reasonably priced, subscription-based cloud computing services are also customizable, which helps eliminate the need to purchase more computer hardware or software for upgrades.

Rocke also believes that the adoption of cloud computing services will greatly improve government services and prevent security issues.

â€œIn addition, working hours in government agencies generally last from 9 AM to 5 PM, and this exposes the governmentâ€™s IT infrastructure to security and service availability issues beyond normal working hours,â€ explained Rocke.

â€œEven netizens nowadays expect online government services to be available 24/7. With cloud computing, the government can simultaneously address these issues in access, availability, security and performance over time.â€

Finally, Rocke said that the considerably low pricing of cloud computing services can help attract government agencies to adopt them quickly.

â€œCloud providers offer very transparent pricing and guaranteed performance through a Service Level Agreement,â€ he explained. â€œAll these factors significantly reduce cost and improve customer satisfaction.â€

He believes that the bright future of cloud computing in the Philippines in 2013 offers a lot of long-term benefits for the government.

â€œThrough cloud computing, the government will be able to introduce new services faster. Costs will be reduced and performance will be increased. Experimentation on a small scale will be possible, with low risk and low costs, before launching on a large scale. All of these will help the government be more innovative with e-Government services,â€ said Rocke.