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320 million Swiss francs for Swiss Government Cloud
View of the Bundeshaus in Bern. Photo: Pixabay
As part of a digitalisation initiative, the Swiss Federal Council wants to modernise the cloud infrastructure used by the public administration and has therefore approved a commitment credit of CHF 246.9 million. The new system is to be developed at the national Federal Office of Information Technology and Telecommunications (FOITT). The Federal Council estimates the total cost of the project at CHF 319.4 million.
New perspectives for the administration
The new Swiss Government Cloud (SGC) will primarily serve the federal authorities, but will also be available to cantons, cities and municipalities in the future. The Federal Office of Information Technology and Telecommunications (FOITT) faces the challenge of setting up a hybrid multi-cloud infrastructure that integrates both public cloud and private cloud offerings. This should enable the federal authorities to use both internal and external cloud services and combine them with one another. The modernisation offensive will also focus on data protection and information security, which will be implemented in accordance with the highest standards.
The SGC is intended to replace the FOITT's increasingly outdated private cloud infrastructure and ensure that a suitable cloud environment is available for new federal applications. The aim is to be able to react quickly to current and future technological developments and benefit from them.
Government cloud promises financial relief
According to the Federal Council, a general overhaul of the cloud infrastructure is also worthwhile, particularly from a financial perspective. Continuing to operate the old cloud solution would have cost the federal government more in the long term than developing and providing the new cloud infrastructure.
The estimated CHF 320 million is not just for the development and operation of the new cloud. The investments will also be used to expand the network infrastructure, cybersecurity and training and consulting services.
The Confederation had already awarded the contracts worth CHF 110 million to Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, AWS and Alibaba in 2021.
At the Smart Country Convention 2024, visitors can discover many more exciting digitalisation projects from Switzerland and on the topic of cloud infrastructure.
An overview of this year's exhibitors can be found here.
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