Governmental Cloud dissected in new report: Top 10 recommendations for successfully deploying Cloud computing in the public sector (Governmental Clouds)
The EU’s cybersecurity Agency ENISA has analysed the present state of play regarding governmental Cloud deployment in 23 countries across Europe. In the report the countries are classified as “Early adopters”, “Well–Informed”, “Innovators”, or “Hesitants” based on specific criteria. Finally, the new report presents ten recommendations for successfully rolling out governmental cloud services, as Cloud is recommended as cheaper and safer for data protection of the citizens.

     
This report presents governmental Cloud deployment in 23 European countries (20 EU MS): Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Republic of Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the UK.
Some key findings of the report:

Public and private sector organisations are increasingly switching to Cloud computing.
Public bodies are key players in boosting Cloud computing, which offers scalability, elasticity, high performance, resilience and security, together with cost efficiency.
Governmental Clouds can also simplify citizen interaction by reducing information processing time, lowering the cost of government services and enhancing citizen data security. 

 
Top ten recommendations for the secure deployment of governmental clouds:

Support the development of an EU strategy for governmental Clouds
Develop a business model to guarantee sustainability as well as economies of scale for gov-Cloud solutions
Promote the definition of a regulatory framework to address the “locality problem”
Promote the definition of a framework to mitigate the “loss of control” problem
Develop a common SLA framework
Enhance compliance to EU and country specific regulations for Cloud solutions
Develop a certification framework
Develop a set of security measures for all deployment models
Support academic research for cloud computing
Develop provisions for privacy enhancement

 
The Executive Director of ENISA Professor Udo Helmbrecht commented: “This report provides the governments the necessary insights to successfully deploy Cloud services. This is in the interest both of the citizens, and for the economy of Europe, being a business opportunity for EU companies; to better manage security, resilience and to strengthen the national cloud strategy using governmental Clouds.“
 
For full report and all recommendations
Background: Digital Agenda,: EU Cloud computing services, EU Cloud Strategy, Connected Europe
ENISA 2011 report on Governmental Clouds.
For interviews; Ulf Bergström, Spokesman, ulf.bergstrom@enisa.europa.eu, mobile: + 30 6948 460 143, or Dimitra Liveri, Expert, dimitra.liveri [ @ ]enisa.europa.eu
 
 
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