Government innovation through cloud computing arthur riel
1. Government Innovation Through
Cloud Computing
Advantages for developing countries
Arthur Riel
February 14, 2013
This material is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or
the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. This material should not be reproduced or distributed without The World Bank's prior consent.
2. Cloud: The Sweet Spot
The virtualization and commoditization of
infrastructure has benefited numerous
organizations
Data center decentralization has become very
inexpensive, benefiting larger countries
Data center centralization has become very
inexpensive (e.g. Indonesia)
Servers, storage and bandwidth are now priced
like electricity
Many large organizations are effectively using
cloud to run 100% of their operations: Netflix,
Four Square.
3. Cloud: Benefits to Government
Pay as you go servers can be cheaper than
providing data centers, especially in countries
with poor infrastructure
Hosting mobile applications in the cloud can
eliminate the need for intermediate servers, e.g.
cloud to smart phone.
No large capital upfront fee
No hardware/technology refresh to strategize
As businesses and citizens increase usage there
is no extensibility planning required
4. eGovernment in the Cloud
eGovernment services are ideally hosted in the
cloud
The EU is benchmarking member countries as
part of the EU2020 Digital Agenda on
eGovernment services
Hosting in the cloud allows for countries to focus
on data cleanup (always a big problem) and
service implementation solely
As the number of services is increased (and the
associated added transactions) the cloud allows
for nearly infinite scale at a linear or better cost
model
5. 20 Basic Public eGovernment Services
Business Community
Citizen Based
Based
• Income taxes • Social contributions
• Job search • Corporate tax
• Social security contributions (3 • VAT
out of 4) • Company Registration
• Personal documents • Statistical data
• Car registration • Customs declarations
• Application for building • Environment-related permits
permission • Public procurement
• Declaration to the police
• Public libraries
• Certificates
• Enrolment in higher education
• Announcement of moving
• Health related services
6. eGoverment Maturity Model: Four
Stage Framework
4. Full on-
line
3. Two-Way transactions
Interaction including
delivery and
payment
2. One Way
Interaction
1: Posting
of
Information
On-Line
7. eGovernment in the Cloud
eGovernment services provide better service to
clients, e.g. birth/death/move reporting, tax
payments, building permits
eGovernment services provide better service to
business, e.g. company registration, tax
payments, permit requests, building permits
eGovernment services provide for more
productive and efficient government agencies
through streamlined, automated processes.
8. Mobility in the Cloud
By implementing the mobility infrastructure in
the cloud we achieve all the benefits of
scalability, decentralization and technology
independence.
Mobility can be exploited for a number of
purposes for developing countries
Agricultural Extension Services
Educational Services
Crowd Sourcing, e.g. healthcare issues, project
management, corruption monitoring
9. Document Management in the Cloud
By managing government documents in a public
cloud they are highly accessible at much lower
cost (one popular vendor offers a low end
solution at 18 cents per GB/year and high end at
less than 90 cents per GB/year)
Sensitive documents can be stored in a virtual
private cloud for not much higher costs
Scalability, backup and technology replacement
are no longer government issues
What about security?
10. Email and Collaboration in the Cloud
There are many vendors offering collaboration
solutions that are cloud-based
No need for capital upfront expenditures
Fast initiation and setup
Scalability, backup and technology replacement
are no longer government issues
11. A Caveat for the Cloud
There is little case law in cross border cloud disputes
and issues
As the cloud obscures where data and solutions exist,
as well as the number of instances and jurisdictions,
there are possible complexities
Some governments implement their own internal
cloud to avoid these legal issues
Others use a virtual private cloud with encryption at
rest technologies
The World Bank has an issue on privileges in the cloud
These types of issues are not new to the cloud, US/EU
email case study