The Philippines needs to adopt cloud technology to be able to deliver quality services to Filipinos and to achieve better governance, said Maria Victoria Castro, Head of Cybersecurity Bureau, Philippines’ Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
According to Castro, the implementation of Government Cloud (GovCloud) by the DICT is being promoted as a public service cloud infrastructure for government agencies. GovCloud is a hybrid deployment of both on-premise resources managed and provided by DICT, and resources from accredited Cloud Service Providers (CSPs).
Castro said that the adoption of cloud technology by the government will result in several benefits, including improved inter-agency collaboration for greater efficiency and enhanced citizen online services, better operational continuity and business recovery, faster service deployment, greater budget control, and reduced spending on legacy infrastructure.
The scope of GovCloud will encompass all executive departments, bureaus, offices, agencies, and instrumentalities of the national government, as well as government-owned and controlled corporations and subsidiaries, state universities and colleges, and local government units.
Right now, Castro said that the DICT is pursuing a Cloud First Policy by considering cloud computing solutions as a primary part of their infrastructure planning and procurement.
Moreover, Castro mentioned that the DICT is committed to securing the cloud by implementing appropriate controls and security protocols to effectively address the risks and vulnerabilities associated with the data stored or processed through their selected cloud deployment.
The DICT will ensure that their industry adheres to both local and international security standards, as well as relevant Philippine laws, by regularly monitoring compliance with these standards, as per her statement.
In January, the Philippines and China signed a memorandum of understanding with the aim of fostering cooperation on digital projects involving AI, 5G, big data, IoT, and cloud computing. In accordance with the MoU, the countries will share information and best practices in digital government strategy and digital government services.
