Telecom Lead Asia: Mobile service provider Singapore
Telecommunications (SingTel) has bagged two tenders from Infocomm Development
Authority (IDA) to speed up the Singapore Government’s adoption of cloud
computing.
The first five-year tender is given to deploy a private
cloud computing infrastructure on a whole-of-government basis.
The G-Cloud will be rolled out by the end of 2012 and it
marks the first private cloud infrastructure to be developed on such a scale to
cover all government bodies in Singapore.
SingTel will provide and maintain G-Cloud for an initial
five years with the option for renewal of a further five years. The G-Cloud is
a whole-of-government private cloud infrastructure that is multi-tenanted and
meets the required security assurance for the government.
The G-Cloud will deliver benefits of cloud
computing which includes virtualisation, multi-tenancy, automation with
on-demand provisioning and rapid scalability of G-Cloud resources.
“G-Cloud will enable all branches of the government
to develop, deploy and scale up applications more quickly, efficiently and
securely, thus increasing the scope of e-services and raising the standard of service
delivery to all its stakeholders, particularly the public. This will enhance
Singapore’s competitiveness in the long run and entrench our position as one of
the world’s most competitive economies,” said Bill Chang, SingTel’s
executive vice president, Business Group.
The company has got a renewal of public cloud
services bulk tender by IDA to offer public cloud services to the
government. This is part of IDA’s plan to support the growth and
competitiveness of Singapore industries by promoting the use of cloud
services.
The tender mandates SingTel to provide public cloud
services to the government for two years, with the option of a further one year
extension.
The public cloud services include compute,
storage and software services that enable the Government
to simply deploy the applications and projects in the cloud and pay for
the usage without owning the IT infrastructure.
SingTel plans to acquire non-phone businesses in China and
India
SingTel may acquire non-phone businesses
in China, India or the U.S. as it is looking to shift focus from
slower-growing core markets in Singapore and Australia.
The service provider may raise its stakes in associates
in Asia and Africa and make other strategic investments.
editor@telecomlead.com