Light in a dark cloud service sky?

In the shadow of the coronavirus crisis, the public cloud computing market is still frozen.

eSam's famous Legal Statement on Disclosure and Cloud Computing, which essentially states that if a piece of classified information is at all at risk of disclosure, it is therefore considered to be disclosed, has had a strong normative impact on IT operations procurement across the public sector. Combined with the fact that the more general conditions for outsourcing IT operations are under investigation, a dead man's hand has been placed over the possibility of legally testing the applicable legislation. The situation is not helped by the fact that the IT operations inquiry has been struggling with a difficult timetable and staffing of key positions since its inception. And all indications are that the inquiry will be delayed.

But now a ray of light has appeared in an otherwise rather dark public cloud service market. According to several sources, a draft bill for proposals from the so-called digitalization rights inquiry is currently being prepared by the Government Offices. One of the committee's proposals concerns a penalty-based duty of confidentiality for private IT suppliers. This could give public purchasers a tool to increase security in the handling of confidential information.

However, it is hard to underestimate the proposals that the IT operations inquiry will come up with. Therefore, it is perhaps more important than ever that the industry puts pressure on both the secretariat of the inquiry and the government on the need to get the inquiry into port as soon as possible. And that the proposals, based on objective data and a good understanding of the industry, the technology and its possibilities, land correctly. It will be a difficult balancing act. One contribution from IT&Telecom and our member companies in the Data Council is our industry position on outsourcing of IT services in the public sector. Hopefully, it will help to give the inquiry a better understanding of the industry and its potential to deliver first-class digital services to the public sector in the future.