At the Digital Business conference: The conference of Cloud – Data Centres and Digital Transformation, which examines the developments in the field of cloud and data centres, was attended by the Director-General of Projects of IS S.A., Dimitris Giantsis, and he spoke about the expansion and upgrading with new services of cloud computing infrastructure (Cloud Computing) designed by the Ministry of Digital Governance in cooperation with the Information Society (IS) to meet the increased needs of the public sector.
The whole speech follows below.
Good morning everyone,
First of all, I would like to thank the organisers for their honorary invitation to this important digital event and wish them every success.
Such initiatives are very important, because, under these circumstances, they give all of us the opportunity to exchange views, to expand ideas, and to accelerate jointly on behalf of the market and the public mechanisms the developments regarding the integration of technology in our everyday life.
In the last year, due to the pandemic, even the most sceptical people had clearly realised that technology tends to be totally connected to our lives. It touches upon and influences our personal, educational, work, consumer and professional activities.So. it makes imperative the need to accelerate the digital transformation of the public sector and public administration, so that they will function more effectively with the aim of serving the citizens and the businesses.
The digital transformation of the state from an environment of bureaucracy, organisational problems and legal fragmentation into a modern and functional environment, which can adapt to the most rapid technological and socio-economic developments and show its respect for citizens and businesses by simplifying procedures and relieving them of administrative burdens, was the main commitment of the Ministry of Digital Governance, which started to implement it rom the first day of its establishment, having as its main executive agency for the implementation of its digital strategy, the Information Society.
Cloud computing was a key pillar of the Digital Strategy for the digital transformation of the public sector and this was obvious from August 2019, when Law no. 4623 gave powers to the supervised entities of the Ministry and, at the same time, the transfer of all critical information systems of the State to the government computing cloud “G-Cloud” of the G.S.I.S until 2022 was provided. The message of the digital strategy for placing cloud technologies at the centre of the digital transformation of the public sector was even clearer after the adoption of Law no. 4727/2020 where G-Cloud also played a central role.
G-Cloud, which is a pioneering and innovative project of the Greek Public Administration, was designed and implemented by the Information Society in cooperation with the G.S.I.S. and it operated productively in 2017. G-Cloud is the state-of-the-art computer centre based on Cloud Computing and virtualisation technologies. A project of €17 million through which the most modern public data centre was built in accordance with the highest and most stringent international specifications for the construction and operation of a Data Centre, both in terms of physical security and access, as well as the uninterrupted operation, exceeding its specifications of tier III set by Uptime Institute. As far as the computing infrastructure is concerned, computing equipment with more than 10 thousand virtual cores was created, capable of hosting 10 important public information systems.
With the aim to enhance the reliability of G-Cloud, the Information Society, as a contracting authority, in cooperation with the G.S.I.S., is running two more competitions to strengthen it further. The first competition concerns the preparation of G-Cloud certification according to ISO 27001 and the second one concerns the targeted publicity of the project, in order to inform the public bodies about the new possibilities provided to them by the use of G-Cloud infrastructure.
The action of G-Cloud was a very successful bet and within its three years of operation a very large percentage of its available resources has already been covered, while new needs make it necessary to immediately expand its infrastructure, add new functions such as Containers, BlockChain and Serverless computing management, and adopt modern automation procedures for the faster service of the final beneficiaries. Taking into account all the above together with the increasing needs created in G-Cloud, and following the obligation to transfer almost all of the public information systems there, the G.S.I.S. has commissioned the Information Society through an information system to implement a project for the next generation of government cloud computing – the so-called G-Cloud next generation.
With the implementation of (NxG) there will be an expansion and upgrading of the existing computing power, while at the same time, procurement of computing infrastructures will be carried out by providers of public computing cloud, thus forming a hybrid computing cloud system. The Information Society is in the final stages of announcing this project with a budget of approximately EUR 25 million.
At the same time, in order to meet the increased needs, the Information Society has signed a programme agreement with the Ministry of Digital Governance to explore the direct use of Public Cloud infrastructures for the implementation of a hybrid cloud and the benefits that this solution offers (new digital applications and services, remote availability of infrastructure, flexibility in resource fluctuation), so that the Public Administration acquires the maximum possible flexibility in meeting current and new needs. In the next period, in cooperation with the main public cloud providers and the competent services of the Ministry of Digital Governance, we will proceed to the next steps. A Tender Procedure for the conclusion of a Partnership Agreement for the supply of goods and services for a period of three (3) years is already planned, which may be extended in accordance with the provisions of the notice and the restrictions provided by law.
Having said the above, it is obvious that the Information Society has both the experience and the knowledge in the implementation of projects related to cutting-edge technologies, such as cloud computing. Moreover, in the last 1.5 years, the Information Society has been strengthened with a significant number of new executives, as well as technological infrastructure, in order to be able to fulfil its demanding role as the main executive agency for the implementation of the digital strategy of the Ministry of Digital Governance
It continuously increases the portfolio of projects it manages on behalf of Public Bodies. At present, it manages 150 public works contracts in various stages of maturity, with a budget of approximately €1.8 billion, as well as state aid actions with a budget exceeding €300 million. In total, the budget of the projects and actions managed by the company is over 2.1 billion euro. This number will increase even further in the coming period, taking into account the “Digital Transformation Bible” projects that are going to be assigned to Information Society, as well as the projects of the Ministry of Digital Governance that will be integrated and financed by the Recovery Fund, a large part of which is to be implemented by Information Society.
In the near future, around April, we are expected to auction more than 20 projects with a budget of around €110 million, which interfere in the core of public administration and further improve the digital international ranking of Greece, by setting the service of citizens as the ultimate goal and the final recipient.
That’s all from me. Thank you again for the invitation and I wish good luck to all of you in the conference.
