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VMware is partnering with SingTel to build the G-cloud, Singapore’s government-wide cloud computing initiative announced last year.
When ready by the end of 2012, the G-cloud will allow government departments to standardise and share computing resources hosted on a private cloud. They can also use the cloud services to test and deploy new applications with minimal cost.
SingTel will provide and maintain the G-cloud for an initial five years. The G-cloud, which will be powered by VMware’s vSphere virtualisation platform, will also offer varying security and governance levels to meet the needs of different government agencies.
“The Singapore Government has embraced virtualisation as a key transformative technology at the heart of the next era of computing, and we are thrilled that SingTel has been awarded this pioneering opportunity to deploy a private cloud computing infrastructure based on VMware’s cloud infrastructure management Suite,” said Andrew Dutton, senior vice president and general manager of VMware Asia Pacific and Japan.
“This win marks an important milestone in our long-standing relationship with SingTel, and speaks to our shared belief that migration to cloud can drive transformation change, and offer the flexibility to use on- and off-premise resources in a secured fashion,” he added.
According to VMware, public sector IT teams can also move applications and data between clouds easily, since its virtualisation platform is also used by public cloud service providers.
“By providing the same cloud infrastructure to both government agencies and service providers, VMware enables secure interoperability between private and public clouds—bringing all of the benefits of a hybrid cloud approach,” the company said.
Forrester analyst Manish Bahl said recently that the success of the G-cloud largely depends on the experience of government agencies in a shared services environment and incentives that the government plans to provide to agencies to ensure maximum participation.
“Moreover, moving to the G-cloud is a paradigm shift for the Singapore government; most would prefer to continue working with an initial vendor (SingTel) than getting a new vendor once the old contract expires,” Bahl said in a blog post.
“Nevertheless, a lot will depend upon ‘experience’ that SingTel provides to government entities on this initial project. Any issue with G-cloud infrastructure project will push SingTel on a back-seat in front of the government,” he added.
