Cabinet earmarks THB6.2 billion for Government Cloud project
The cabinet on Tuesday tasked the Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry and National Telecom with establishing and operating a Government Cloud, a massive central computing network to facilitate digital operations.
“The initial phase of the project will last three years – from 2023 to 2025 – under a budget of 6.2 billion baht,” deputy government spokesperson Traisulee Traisoranakul said on Tuesday.
This budget will be divided into the following:
- Rental fee of a cloud system featuring at least 25,000 VMs (virtual machines) at 3.85 billion baht
- Rental fee for data storage space of 3,000 terabytes, costing 578 million baht
- Service fee for log and security management costing 1.35 billion baht
- Database licence fee at 229 million baht
- Cloud marketplace fee of 150 million baht
- Service fee for 24/7 call centres, costing 57 million baht.
“The DES Ministry has estimated that the Government Cloud project will help the government save on its digital infrastructure budget related to cloud rental services from overseas parties by 4.1 billion baht, or 76.2 per cent of the invested budget, but will greatly enhance the security of Thailand’s information technology system as cloud operators will be based here in Thailand,” said Traisulee.
“The Government Cloud project will also be an important steppingstone toward the transition of a traditional government into a digital one, and will fully utilise big data for efficient administration and policymaking,” she added.