The Federal government will develop a cloud-enabled workforce in Public Sector Entities under the proposed Pakistan Cloud-First Policy (PCFP).
Sources told that there are six pillars of the PCF policy, which includes considering cloud as the first option for new ICT investment by Public Sector Entities, to reduce the cost of ICT spending of the government of Pakistan by paying only for the services that are utilized and to provide enhanced information security to PSE through cloud offerings.
In addition, the government will not only develop a cloud-enabled workforce but also attain optimization through the aggregation of resources. The other pillars under the PCFP included obtaining environmental benefits achieved by optimized use of resources and to encourage investment in cloud services by local and international cloud service providers in Pakistan.
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Sources said that the Utilization of ICT not only streamlines the interactions between the government and the citizens but also introduces efficiencies in the internal operations of the government. However, ICT infrastructure deployed in small clusters for the use of individual government departments is a cause of increased government spending is difficult to manage and does not offer the required level of security.
Because of these reasons, governments around the world are opting for a cloud-first approach. Cloud computing introduces aggregation of ICT resources and provides benefits such as reduced spending enhanced security, increased transparency, enhanced service delivery, and reduced carbon footprint.
Cloud computing fundamentally changes how organizations use ICT in a more efficient way. The current public sector ICT infrastructure in Pakistan exists in small clusters in various public sector organizations. This not only wastes precious government resources on duplication of effort but is also difficult to plan for and is underutilized. In order to address this challenge, an advisory committee was constituted to deliberate upon the cloud-first strategy for the government of Pakistan.
Sources said that the draft of PCFP was formulated and three iterations of the consultative process were carried out. The benefit of cloud adoption is evident, and a collaborative effort across Pakistan will bring benefits of economies of scale.
Initially, the system would be implemented at the federal level, and subsequently, the provincial governments will be encouraged to adopt this cloud policy, in addition, sources said that the representatives of respective provincial governments will also be included in the cloud board.
Sources said that government will establish a cloud office to act as the flag bearer for cloud adoption in Pakistan, and this office will be responsible for establishing a classification, accreditation, registration, and compliance framework for CSP based on international benchmarks.
In addition, this office would carry out or seek compliance from the CSP against the established benchmarks and promote a cloud culture and adoption of cloud services across PSE. Furthermore, the office will also provide a time-based NOC if there is a legitimate reason for deviation to PCFP, Enforcement of modalities for cloud-first investment, and Support provinces in the adoption of PCFP in their jurisdictions.
The establishment of the cloud will be responsible to facilitate PSE in designing architecting, procuring, building, migration, and managing their workloads and applications on the cloud, initiating call-offs for the requirements of PSE, and reporting breaches of contracts between PSE and CSP to the cloud.
Sources said that Information and Communication Technology is enabling governments around the world to deliver citizen-centered digital solutions and digital transformation in the public sector brings transparency and accountability in service delivery to the citizens. It is pertinent to note that Pakistan launched its digital Pakistan Policy in 2018 to harness the potential of ICT and to become a strategic enabler for an accelerated digital ecosystem.
