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The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) today (February 20) launched a request for information (RFI) exercise inviting submissions from IT service providers on the provision of public cloud services to government bureaux/departments, with a view to developing a reference list for procurement of such services.
"The Government has formulated a strategy to adopt cloud computing in delivering its e-services. We aim to establish a government cloud environment progressively over the next few years to support a range of government-wide applications," a spokesman for the OGCIO said.
The government cloud environment includes an "in-house private cloud" owned and operated by the Government, "outsourced private clouds" comprising facilities dedicated to the Government in secure data centres operated by contractors, and "public clouds" for generic applications involving non-sensitive information.
Public cloud service providers can respond to the RFI by providing information on their services and offers under four categories, namely productivity applications, business applications, cloud IT services and social media applications.
Based on the responses to the RFI, the OGCIO will compile and make available to all bureaux/departments a list of government public cloud services (GPCS) providers, together with their offered services and reference prices. With reference to the list, bureaux/departments can at any time invite quotations to acquire public cloud services and place orders with the service providers in accordance with government procurement procedures.
"Under the procurement arrangement, bureaux/departments need not go through lengthy procurement for each and every acquisition, thereby speeding up the procurement process," the spokesman said.
"We will provide a standard set of terms and conditions for adoption by bureaux/departments as the basis for establishing service contracts with the GPCS providers. This will further save their time and effort in negotiating with individual providers in each acquisition," the spokesman added.
The RFI respondents who wish to be included in the GPCS provider list are required to go through a technical assessment by the Government to ensure that their offered services meet the security, manpower, technical and other general requirements on quality services under the different service categories.
To cope with the fast-changing cloud computing environment, listed GPCS providers may at any time make requests to the Government for adding new services, changing existing services or removing obsolete services. The list may be updated where necessary or on a regular basis.
The RFI documents can be obtained at the OGCIO, 6/F, North Point Government Offices, 333 Java Road, North Point, Hong Kong, or downloaded from www.ogcio.gov.hk/en/business/tender_eoi_rfp/eoi_rfi_rfq.htm. Responses to the RFI should be submitted by hand or by post on or before 5pm on March 30, 2012.
Ends/Monday, February 20, 2012
Issued at HKT 18:03
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