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| Lim. |
Governments have moved a long way over the past five years in their understanding of the cloud, says Lim May-Ann, Executive Director of the Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA), and have a more nuanced understanding of cloud today.
Speaking at Microsoft's Cyber Trust Experience 2015, Lim noted that public sector cloud or 'gCloud' is taking off, while the public sector has more understanding of how to build foundations for applications which require clouds, including the Internet of Things and smart cities.
Speaking at Microsoft's Cyber Trust Experience 2015, Lim noted that public sector cloud or 'gCloud' is taking off, while the public sector has more understanding of how to build foundations for applications which require clouds, including the Internet of Things and smart cities.
New integrated approaches towards technology policy making are occurring as well, Lim said, with cloud no longer seen as a vertical sector but a horizontal enabling layer that is disrupting government decision-making silos. "A holistic approach is a key factor for success," she said.
The advantages for a land-hungry country, he noted, included being able to do away with individual data centres for each organisation, as they could draw on computing resources through the cloud instead.
It was an uphill battle eight years ago to attract cloud computing providers, Dr Lee said, as many felt that Singapore had too small a domestic market. Things changed when Singapore positioned itself as a regional player which also happens to host over 6,000 multinational corporations.
An entire ecosystem had to be put in place, with many factors to consider, Dr Lee said. The NCCO had to think about driving demand, regulations, and creating a pipeline of human resources with the right skills. Security, complementary hardware, ensuring that the national broadband rollout would facilitate impede cloud computing, and building areas where there would be adequate power all required IDA involvement and public-private partnerships.
Singapore is one of the countries where gCloud is already in place, Dr Lee added. If there are no restrictions in terms of security, government agencies can even use public cloud systems, whereas restricted, confidential or secret information requires the use of the Central G-Cloud.
Data protection and privacy in the cloud era can be addressed with the Personal Data Protection Commission, which was established in 2013. "Our approach is to have a light touch," said Dr Lee. "We don't require auditing; it's when there are complaints that investigations are undertaken."
Another highlight of Singapore's cloud journey is a tiered system on cloud service security similar to that for data centre sophisitication. The multi-tiered model on cloud security (MTCS) was published in 2013, has three tiers with services that have a minimum of required controls designated as tier 1, and tier 3 for applications with more stringent security requirements.
As part of Singapore's focus on moving to a Smart Nation, Singapore has put together a data marketplace to incubate and nurture new business and creative opportunities for the private sector. The pilot includes 22 private sector companies and 77 data sets, and a mashup was held in January 2015.
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| Governments in the Asia Pacific region are backing open data initiatives in the cloud. |
Lim shared that open data initiatives are growing in the Asia Pacific region as governments become more willing to experiment and share data in the cloud. Data initiatives in the region include those from Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia, she said.
Public-private partnerships are playing a role in building trust in the cloud, she added.
Singapore is clearly quite far along on its cloud journey going by Lim's observations. Dr Lee Hing Yan, Director, National Cloud Computing Office, IDA Singapore, said at the same event that Singapore is committed to cloud computing and tends to rank highly on various indices on cloud adoption.
Public-private partnerships are playing a role in building trust in the cloud, she added.
Singapore is clearly quite far along on its cloud journey going by Lim's observations. Dr Lee Hing Yan, Director, National Cloud Computing Office, IDA Singapore, said at the same event that Singapore is committed to cloud computing and tends to rank highly on various indices on cloud adoption.
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| Dr Lee. |
The advantages for a land-hungry country, he noted, included being able to do away with individual data centres for each organisation, as they could draw on computing resources through the cloud instead.
It was an uphill battle eight years ago to attract cloud computing providers, Dr Lee said, as many felt that Singapore had too small a domestic market. Things changed when Singapore positioned itself as a regional player which also happens to host over 6,000 multinational corporations.
An entire ecosystem had to be put in place, with many factors to consider, Dr Lee said. The NCCO had to think about driving demand, regulations, and creating a pipeline of human resources with the right skills. Security, complementary hardware, ensuring that the national broadband rollout would facilitate impede cloud computing, and building areas where there would be adequate power all required IDA involvement and public-private partnerships.
Singapore is one of the countries where gCloud is already in place, Dr Lee added. If there are no restrictions in terms of security, government agencies can even use public cloud systems, whereas restricted, confidential or secret information requires the use of the Central G-Cloud.
Data protection and privacy in the cloud era can be addressed with the Personal Data Protection Commission, which was established in 2013. "Our approach is to have a light touch," said Dr Lee. "We don't require auditing; it's when there are complaints that investigations are undertaken."
Another highlight of Singapore's cloud journey is a tiered system on cloud service security similar to that for data centre sophisitication. The multi-tiered model on cloud security (MTCS) was published in 2013, has three tiers with services that have a minimum of required controls designated as tier 1, and tier 3 for applications with more stringent security requirements.
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| Singapore ranks highly in a 2014 IDA survey on cloud adoption in ASEAN. |
As part of Singapore's focus on moving to a Smart Nation, Singapore has put together a data marketplace to incubate and nurture new business and creative opportunities for the private sector. The pilot includes 22 private sector companies and 77 data sets, and a mashup was held in January 2015.
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