The Hong Kong government CIO announces today to form a cloud expert group to help drive the development of cloud computing standards and best practices within the Hong Kong government.

Speaking at a keynote session at the Next Generation Information Technology Standard Symposium held at the Hong Kong Cyberport, Daniel Lai (pictured), CIO of the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer of Hong Kong (OGCIO) said the soon to form cloud expert group will be tasked to address four key issues: 1) Interoperability of cloud services, 2) Information security and data privacy protection; 3) Cloud provisioning and service management; and 4) Contracting and procurement, which deal with service level agreements.

"To adopt cloud computing on a mass scale, we must first address some key areas of concerns. These are information security and data privacy protection; achieving a unified identity management; have an exit strategy in place; the relevant legal issues; and procurement practices," Lai said in an interview with Asia Cloud Forum.

"Other than the four key issues above, the expert group will also need to establish the best practices and standards of cloud computing adoption. The cloud expert group is not formed to conduct research on these areas, instead they are to identify the issues involved," Lai said.

Officially named "Expert Group on Cloud Computing Services Architecture and Standards," the group will comprise 19 to 20 IT professionals including OGCIO staff, representatives from Cyberport and Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI), academics at tertiary institutions, IT professionals, industry bodies on cloud computing, and large corporations that have rich experience in cloud computing. Lai will chair the expert group.

Intended for a two-year term, the cloud expert group members will be responsible for: 1) Advising the best strategies to promote the adoption of the cloud service architecture, standards and best practices; 2) Advising the best practices of information security, data privacy protection, service management and contracting issues. The advices will then be shared among all government departments, IT service providers and users, according to Lai.

Need for standards

"There is room for improvement in cloud service management, such as in the areas of service description and the standards for application development."   -- Daniel Lai, Hong Kong government CIO

Lai said the cloud expert group will also closely cooperate with the relevant industry bodies of cloud computing, both mainland Chinese and international ones (such as the Cloud Security Alliance and the Open Group). This is to fully support China's 12th Five-Year Plan, to enhance "informatization" in the mainland, and to help China "internationalize its service industry."

In China's 12th Five-Year Plan, cloud computing was designated as one of the seven key emerging industries in mainland China. According to KPMG Hong Kong, the Chinese government has planned for an investment of RMB 1.1 trillion (US$174 million) to develop several key cloud computing hubs in the country.

"We believe the authorities in mainland China will formulate cloud computing standards in time. The Hong Kong IT industry can contribute to the development of these standards, sharing of their experience of cloud adoption, and defining the best practices and service delivery models," Lai said.