[LINK] Japan to build massive cloud infrastructure for e-government

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

<brd>
The report is at
https://www.neca.org/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_0_307_206_0_43/http;/prodnet.www.neca.org/wawatch/wwpdf/65japan.pdf 

</brd>

Japan to build massive cloud infrastructure for e-government
Posted by Tony Chan on May 13, 2009 in Cloud computing
By CommsDay International

In a document that outlines a Digital Japan Creation Project, dubbed the 
ICT Hatoyama Plan, Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and 
Communications revealed plans to build a massive cloud computing 
infrastructure to support all of the government’s IT systems.

Called tentatively the Kasumigaseki Cloud, the new infrastructure will 
be built in stages from now until 2015. The goal of the project 
consolidate all government IT systems into a single cloud infrastructure 
to improve operation efficiency and reduce cost.

“The Kasumigaseki Cloud will enable various ministries to collaborate to 
integrate and consolidate hardware and create platforms for shared 
functions,” the MIC said. “Efforts will be made to efficiently develop 
and operate information systems with the aim of greatly reducing 
electronic government–related development and operating costs while 
increasing the pace of processing by integrating shared functions, 
increasing collaboration among systems, and providing secure and 
advanced governmental services.”

According to the MIC, the Kasumigaseki Cloud will eliminate the need for 
individual ministries to maintain their own IT systems by consolidating 
current data centres, and allow each ministries to use only the computer 
resources necessary through the cloud platform.

As part of the cloud project, a new National Digital Archive (tentative 
name) will also be developed to digitize government document and other 
popular information, and introduce standardized formats and meta data to 
improve public access.

The Kasumigaseki Cloud initiative is one of nine action points set forth 
by the MIC to stimulate growth of the industry in Japan.

“The ICT market currently has a total scale of a little less than 100 
trillion yen. The Digital Japan Creation Project seeks to create new ICT 
markets in the range of several trillion yen and to generate 
300,000–400,000 new jobs over the next three years (on a cumulative 
basis) by encouraging ICT capital investment based on a new growth 
strategy for ICT industries,” the ministry said. “Through these 
measures, the plan also aims to double ICT industries over the medium 
term through 2015–2020 (creating new markets of as much as 100 trillion 
yen).”

Among the key objectives identified by the plan is the creation of 
industries that leverage local demand to create internationally 
competitiveness for the country. One such initiative outlined is the 
acceleration of R&D in wireless communications, including the use of 
white space spectrum, to create new services – i.e. through an 
intelligent transport system – cars that won’t crash. As part of this 
category, the plan also called for the acceleration of development and 
time-to-market of “technologies that have been honed in Japan,” 
including “ultra-high-speed, energy saving all optical communications 
equipment.”

Another plan proposal aims to stimulate the local creative industries by 
facilitating the integration of the communications and broadcast 
industries, the development of a content transaction market, and 
enhanced measures to prevent piracy.

Additional proposals were put forth to develop and implement ubiquitous 
Green ICT solutions, including initiatives like the Kasumigaseki Cloud, 
boost ICT human resources, and the creation of “safe and secure 
networks” for the public.

This article was first published in CommsDay International

-- 
 
Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au