Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 36 | Page 19

NEWS Amazon to create framework for cloud services in Kuwaiti government sector Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority chooses IBM cloud to host its IT environment T he Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority (CITRA) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are putting frameworks and policies together for cloud services to develop the e-government sector in Kuwait. CITRA said in a statement that it was working with Amazon to organise workshops inside Kuwait to provide solutions for the government sector in general, and the health and educational sectors in particular, to provide state-of-the- art e-services for the public. CITRA and Amazon signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation, in the presence of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, during his visit to Washington. The MoU will contribute to the Digital Transformation of Kuwait thus honouring the government’s long-term development plan Kuwait Vision 2035. The agreement will help promote the development of cloud services that would enhance the performance of the government bodies. I BM has announced that Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority (KDIPA) has chosen IBM Cloud to host its IT environment. KDIPA is one of the implementing arms of Kuwait’s development strategy, tasked to promote direct investment in the country. Since its inception, it has relied on its own on-premise, in-house IT infrastructure. Its applications and data were stored in its own data centre. As the organisation grew, it needed to find a security-rich alternative to host its business-critical applications and data, while having the ability to securely and instantaneously customise its requirements and control www.intelligentcio.com its security needs at any point in time. It also wanted to reduce the time being consumed on upgrading its IT infrastructure and managing its physical data centre. Following its tendering process, KDIPA decided that the IBM Cloud best fits its current needs, given its security-rich architecture and IBM’s industry and enterprise expertise. To help enterprises around the world gain valuable insights from their data, IBM Cloud provides clients with an extensive global data centre network spanning 19 countries, next generation cognitive services and enterprise-strength security and industry expertise. n INTELLIGENTCIO 19