'Cloud-First policy has cut 90pc infrastructure costs'

MANAMA: Bahrain’s ‘Cloud-First’ policy has led to a nearly 90 per cent reduction in infrastructure costs, a top government official has said.

The Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA) deputy chief executive for operations and governance Shaikh Salman bin Mohammed Al Khalifa said the migration of 40 government institutions and 650 operations, storage and database processes to the national cloud, has contributed to a 60-90pc reduction in the cost of the technical infrastructure needed for government projects and services.

Speaking during Amazon Web Services (AWS) Summit yesterday, he said another 1,000 migrations are expected to be completed by year-end.

Explaining the rationale for the iGA’s cloud computing policy and its roadmap, Shaikh Salman said Bahrain, in partnership with AWS, had the ability to lead the cloud computing trend at the local and regional levels in both the public and private sectors through its advanced cloud infrastructure and technology.

He pointed to continued efforts being made to create a cloud-based environment to host the government’s IT infrastructure, and the advanced systems in place serving the education, health, finance and other sectors.

Resources have also been directed towards reducing the need for external expertise.

Shaikh Salman highlighted the successful migration of Benayat System, Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) and the National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA) databases concerned with the issuing of licences, which have helped automate the workflow between software development and IT teams, allowing them to build, test and release faster and more reliable systems.

He said skill-building and training required to accelerate and complete the migration process had not been overlooked.

About 400 government employees, in co-operation with AWS and Tamkeen, have taken comprehensive courses covering a range of operational areas, including applications, information security, databases, data analysis, management planning and others.

The current plan targets 1,500 employees during the next phase.

Meanwhile, a group of employees from five public sector entities that excelled in training by AWS have received their certifications from Teresa Carlson, vice-president for Worldwide Public Sector at AWS, in the presence of iGA chief executive Mohamed Ali Al Qaed.

Those honoured were among 400 employees of the Education Ministry, National Oil and Gas Authority, Bahrain Polytechnic, NHRA and iGA, who has signed up for programmes in Information, Communication, and Cloud Computing.

The ceremony was held as part of the 3rd AWS Summit 2019 in Bahrain.

Source: http://www.gdnonline.com/Details/608428

 

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