Hong Kong to roll out government cloud strategy in 2011
By Carol Ko 21-Sep-2010
The Hong Kong Government will roll out its new pan-government IT strategy with an emphasis on cloud computing in 2011.
According to Jeremy Godfrey (pictured), OGCIO's government CIO, the Hong Kong government recognizes the potential to use cloud computing technologies within the government in terms of sharing infrastructure, software components as well as data. “There are all the kinds of data other than personal data which would be useful to share," he said. Data such as road conditions and traffic situations would be good examples of this data sharing.
OGCIO, short for Office of Government Chief Information Officer, is a government agency set up in 2004 to lead ICT development within and outside the Hong Kong government. Godfrey chairs the organizing committee of next week's Hong Kong International Computer Conference 2010 organized by local ICT body Hong Kong Computer Society on September 28-29. Issues such as e-learning, Green IT and "new technologies" such as cloud computing will be addressed.
“We can absolutely see that the use of cloud technology can make IT faster, cheaper and less painful to implement, while also delivering more joined-up services to customers. But of course, while we do so we'll make sure people's privacy is still protected,” said Godfrey.
| "We've [...] been looking at providing human resource management services. That seems to be an area where the needs of different departments are not too dissimilar." -- Jeremy Godfrey, government CIO of the Hong Kong government |
Godfrey said the government cloud strategy is still under preparation. Despite there is not yet a specified time to roll out the cloud strategy, he was sure that “this is not a big bang transformation that will happen overnight.”
He added: “We're quite cautious about using the public cloud because we think that for our citizens' data, we need to be able to ensure the privacy and security. And we are not yet confident about how we can ensure that if the data is up in the [public] cloud. We will more likely in the initial phase to use some kind of private cloud to support government capabilities.”
Directory and HR management services
According to Godfrey, the Hong Kong government sees cloud computing a very important means to facilitate internal collaboration, communication within the government, as well as government-citizen and government-businesses types of communications. Other than collaboration, OGCIO is also looking to deploy cloud services to facilitate information management -- record keeping for instance.
“We have got some specific cloud applications that we'd like to do. Now we need to look at what to come first in our portfolio of cloud applications. What is the common shared infrastructure that could support those cloud applications.
“We will start off by establishing some cloud services. For the ones in the cloud strategy that we're putting together, we're looking at directory service being an early cloud type of service we want to provide. We've also been looking at providing human resource management services. That seems to be an area where the needs of different departments are not too dissimilar.
“So it takes a bit of time to work through the applications. And of course we realize that it's going to change -- that we can't possibly predict all the things we might put to the government cloud right now. So we need a strategy that is going to be sufficiently flexible -- of course, the cloud should be flexible,” said Godfrey.
Cloud services supplier
Once the cloud strategy is rolled out, how will the government cloud work in practice? Will the OGCIO build a cloud computing facility in one of the government's data centers? Does the OGCIO take a central role to manage the government cloud, or will the OGCIO engage an external vendor to help manage it?
| "[A]s for the government departments are concerned, their IT shops will then be about configuring cloud services provided through OGCIO in order to deliver their departments IT solutions." -- Jeremy Godfrey |
“I think one of the ways to think about it, is someone in the OGCIO will in a way become a cloud supplier to government departments,” said Godfrey. “If you take the example of human resource (HR) management. Instead of each department building its own HR management system, it will be able to create an HR management solution out of combining cloud services provided by the OGCIO. And so the customization of the HR cloud service in much the way that some commercial companies will do that for CRM (customer relationship management), as an example.”
According to Godfrey, as far as the government departments are concerned, their IT shops will then be about configuring cloud services provided through OGCIO in order to deliver their departments IT solutions.
“Now the question is how will the OGCIO deliver the cloud services to the departments? We certainly will see ourselves making quite a lot of use of outsourcing in the marketplace. So even though we have a private cloud, it doesn't necessarily have to be in the government data center. We can imagine having an outsourced private cloud.”
“But the important thing is that we know which data center it [the private cloud] was in, and we'd be able to assure the way it was operated, and in particular the security and privacy of the data in that data center. And also the reliability of our access to it will not be dependent on submarine cables and so forth,” Godfrey said.
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Since the Network Cloud Service providers had to build buildings that had high-quality power and were physically secure, it made sense for them to begin to offer data center space for these emerging consumer application cloud services. In the early days it made more sense for Google to use Savvis to provide data center space. Today, companies like Twitter, Facebook and OpenTable continue to rely on data center services provided by companies like Savvis, NTT, Terremark, and others. Of course, anyone who becomes a student of the cost of computing comes to realize that the cost of power is a big driver. As a result, anyone who needs space for 100,000+ computers (e.g., Google, Amazon, Microsoft) is building data centers located near low-cost and reliable power.
After reading this interview with Jeremy Godfrey, I have a few concerns as being a HK citizen and a 20 years IT vertern. As OGCIO is a government agency set up to lead our ICT development within and outside the Hong Kong government, this article shows that it has deficiency and will put us behind the economic development in Hong Kong!! I just highlight a few concerns in below:
#1. OGCIO does not yet have "a specified time to roll out the cloud strategy". Cloud Computing and SaaS has been around in the industry for more than 10 years, which means we are a decade behind. How our Government can lead Hong Kong to be a key global city when its IT strategy is so behind? (Financial Services, which is HK primary industry, is all about speed of information flow and innovation. IT relies heavily on the most up-to-date IT to sustain its competitiveness but OGCIO is lag behind!)
#2. If the concerns is on "the data privacy and security", which this is a concern whether the data is stored on premesis or in the cloud, what is the Government's IT policy & requirements on this at the moment? And has any public Cloud Service Providers be given this policy or requirements to respond if their services is up to the requirements? And have all Government Beureau and Departments met the requirements for their existing IT implementations? The best is to show these policy / requirements / guidelines for Cloud Computing to the vendors & public - which I hope OGCIO has them on hand by now.
#3. In the artcile, Cloud Computing is about "make IT faster, cheaper and less painful to implement". However, it missed out that it is also less pain to maintain and upgrade for new innovations. When OGCIO thinks about Cloud Computing, the speed of innovation that is brought by IT to its users must be a key consideration. Leaving this part out will make its Cloud Computing strategy incomplete.
#4. If OGCIO is to develop its own private cloud - e.g. the Directory service and the future HR system, it may be cheaper as a whole to the HK Government instead of each Beureau and Departments builds its own. However, it will not be the cheapest among the services available in the market as these type of generic services are also needed in the private sectors. More users will drive the cost down - simple economy of scales.
#5. For the OGCIO to run its own private cloud, it will never be able to provide "Faster IT" nor " less pain to implement, maintain and upgrade for new innovations". It is because OGCIO is not an IT company that has its own R&D department, nor is an IT service companies to plan & execute & manage the services, nor is specialized in any of the IT application. It will always be led by the IT companies on the latest offerings, plus it will take time to evaluate, and then translate that into its own execution. This means if run under OGCIO, the IT in HK Government will still be a lagger and this is not the value proposition of Cloud Computing. Why not OGCIO just focus on the IT policy and requirements so that it helps the Government to catch up the speed on the change of the technology? Does OGCIO really need to be an app provider or a service provider (like Google or Facebook)? As said, Cloud Computing & SaaS have been around for last 10 years - what are the standards and guildelines for Beureau and Departments & the HK people to check on security and privacy when they use these Cloud Computing services?
#6. I recently met a SSM from a Department and learnt that their users are requesting for Cloud Computing services to speed up their IT adoptions. This SSM has to visit different exhibitions and events to understand this latest technology and the offerings. At the same time, the SSM is also waiting for the OGCIO advice on Cloud Computing. This shows that there is already demand from the Government internal to speed up their IT adoptions but OGCIO is still lagged behind in supporting its team which in turns to support the Government internal users.
#7. Why would we need OGCIO to run its own Cloud Computing services when there are readily available similar services out in the market? This will become competing with the private sector and against the HK Govenment's spirit as a "small Government"! I certainly hope our OGCIO be able to lead Hong Kong's ICT like IDA in Singapore. ICT is changing very fast. It is to help the society to create and sustain its competiveness. We need our OGCIO to be up to speed and be a fore runner (not a lagger), so that it can help Hong Kong to continue staying on top!
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