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The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) today (May 31) announced the outcome of the request for information exercise launched in February to invite submissions for developing a list of government public cloud services (GPCS) providers for reference by all bureaux/departments. A total of 40 companies offering over 300 public cloud services have been accepted for inclusion into the list, after evaluation.
These companies will provide cloud services under four categories: Category A - Productivity Applications; Category B - Business Applications; Category C - Cloud IT Services; and Category D - Social Media Applications. The names of the companies are available at www.ogcio.gov.hk/en/business/business_window/supplier_list.htm.
"All listed service providers have agreed to follow a standard set of terms and conditions for GPCS. By referring to the list to invite quotations and place orders in accordance with government procurement procedures, bureaux/departments need not go through lengthy procurement for each and every acquisition, thus saving time and effort in procuring the required services," a spokesman for OGCIO said.
The spokesman added that the OGCIO will put in place a governance mechanism to safeguard the quality of services and refresh the list on a regular basis. To cope with the fast changing cloud computing environment, listed GPCS providers can also make requests to the Government for adding new services, changing existing services, or removing obsolete services, subject to the approval of the OGCIO.
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.
Ends/Thursday, May 31, 2012
Issued at HKT 16:13
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