Preliminary study on the implementation of 1GovCloud among public agencies in Malaysia

Abstract

Cloud computing technology has become a new alternative to virtual data storage. The use of the physical data center is no longer the preferred option as this technology is very helpful for organizations in reducing the cost of data center operations. Government agencies are also taking advantage of saving these cloud computing operations to complement and improve facilities for the people. This paper focuses on the implementation of cloud computing initiatives introduced by Malaysian government called 1GovCloud. The purpose is to find out which agencies utilize the technology and the extent of the use of 1GovCloud among the agencies. A preliminary study was conducted through interviews with officials from Malaysian Administrative Modernization and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) and telephone interviews with IT officers of the agencies involved. The findings revealed that about 61 public agencies are using 1GovCloud and 15 of them have shown mixed use between 1GovCloud and regular physical data centers. There are many agencies that use their own data centers, even though they have already subscribed to 1GovCloud especially for their internal applications. For web hosting and public applications, most agencies use 1GovCloud as the main data center. This paper provides some initial insights about the list of agencies that use 1GovCloud services and the extent of its use among them. It was found that the utilization of 1GovCloud among public agencies are still not up to the optimize usage.