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SingTel wins Singapore G-Cloud tender

Telco secures rights from Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore to deploy private cloud infrastructure for whole government as well as offer public cloud services such as storage and software to the agencies.
Written by Kevin Kwang, Contributor

Singapore telecoms operator SingTel clinches two tenders on offer by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) to not only provide the private cloud infrastructure for all government agencies but public cloud services as well.

In a statement released Tuesday, SingTel revealed that it had been awarded a five-year tender to deploy cloud computing infrastructure on a whole-of-government basis by the end of 2012. It will provide and maintain the infrastructure for an initial five years with the option of a further five-year renewal, it stated.

The IDA had earlier announced plans to build a private cloud, called the Central G-Cloud, which will complement the use of public clouds and government agency cloud and replace the whole-of-government infrastructure for shared computing resources known as Shine.

"The G-cloud is a private cloud infrastructure that is multi-tenanted and meets the required security assurance for the government. It will deliver benefits of cloud computing which include virtualization, multi-tenancy, automation with on-demand provisioning, and rapid scalability of G-cloud resources," the company stated.

It also noted that the cloud-based system will pave the way for standardization and sharing of computing resources and applications across all government agencies, thus leading to greater agility and helps lower IT costs.

Agencies can also make use of the resources to testbed and pilot new and innovative apps catered to their needs without upfront cost and ownership of assets, SingTel stated.

Beyond providing the G-Cloud, the local telco has also secured the cloud services bulk tender to offer public cloud services to the government. This means SingTel will provide these services for two years, with the option of extending the contract for another year, it noted.

These services include compute, storage and software offerings that would enable public sector bodies to deploy the apps they require and pay for the use without having to own the IT infrastructure, which helps reduce total cost of ownership (TCO), according to the statement.

These initiatives reflect the Singapore government's openness to using tech to increase productivity and interactivity. In fact, an Accenture survey released on Monday showed that Singaporeans are supportive of the digital channels provided by the government. More than half of the citizens polled found it easy to interact with the government online, and wanted increased access to public services, the report stated.

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