The development of the government cloud is progressing steadily. Within the next few weeks, the Design for the sovereign government cloud will be publicly released. This will allow industry, government, and knowledge institutions to review and contribute. The Design sets out what the sovereign cloud service will look like and what facilities it will provide. It also explains how the technical choices fit together. The Design uses open architecture, open standards and open-source technology. It aims to provide the highest possible level of sovereignty. The cloud will be hosted in a government data centre (ODC).
This gives effect to the decisions and commitments made by the State Secretary for the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) in the Letter to Parliament on the status of the exploration of a sovereign government cloud service dated 1 July (Dutch).
Collaboration among delegations from various levels of government
Central government, provinces, municipalities, water authorities, public service providers (VDPs) and executive agencies (ZBOs) have all contributed to the Design. Delegations from these organisations worked together in intensive working sessions, drafting days and feedback rounds.
Public release of the Design
The public release of the Design follows the approach set out in the Letter to Parliament. It will provide an opportunity for broad input and help build knowledge and understanding of the sovereign government cloud. Stakeholders will be invited to review the Design and provide feedback.
The public release will include a process for submitting written feedback. Government organisations and industry will have separate feedback processes, with the latter building on the open dialogue held previously. Feedback events will also take place in the second half of September and early October.
TNO and the Centre of Excellence for Data Sharing & Cloud (CoE-DSC) have conducted an initial review of version 0.8 of the Design. This version includes the main findings from that review. TNO will continue to support quality assurance as public feedback is incorporated and the Design is further developed.
Link with Proof of Concept
The first design for the sovereign government cloud has now also been implemented as a Proof of Concept (PoC). The parallel development of the Design and the PoC is deliberate. The Design sets out the choices required to achieve sovereignty, while the PoC tests those choices in practice at a scale just large enough for meaningful testing. The results will also inform the feedback events.
The sovereign government cloud is an important and urgent project. This is why the open process brings together industry, government organisations and knowledge institutions. It runs alongside the review process for more clearly defined products, which industry associations recently agreed to. Interested in learning more? Read the earlier news article on closer collaboration with the Digital sector.
