Government Procurement Tender for Nimbus Project to Transfer All Government Services to Cloud Infrastructure • Requirement: Existing Local Infrastructure

The Government of Israel is promoting the national plan to transfer the government to cloud services, for this purpose the Government Procurement Administration in the Ministry of Finance published the Nimbus tender, calling on the major cloud providers, establishing a local region in Israel similar to those established in the world and serving the entire economy in Israel and the government in particular.

A week ago, Microsoft announced its intention to establish the company's first Cloud Datacenter Region in Israel, with the goal of providing smart, secure cloud services through a local data center.

This investment extends Microsoft's global cloud infrastructure to 56 regions in 21 countries. The Israeli region is expected to be available in 2021, first with the Azure cloud infrastructure and then with 365 Office. Azure is a cloud platform that enables access to on-demand computing and advanced services including computing power, network services, databases, analytics technologies, artificial intelligence capabilities and IoT (the Internet of Things) solutions.

But Microsoft is not alone: ​​In September, Oracle CEO Larry Allison at Oracle OpenWorld announced an accelerated move to open 20 new cloud areas (data centers) worldwide by the end of 2020, including two areas in Israel - one commercial and one government. Amazon, through its cloud services division AWS has not yet announced its plans for a local cloud in Israel, but it is conjectured that with the entry of its direct competitors in the local market, Amazon will not delay and take a similar step.

The Government of Israel is asking major suppliers to provide cloud services in the country from a local area (Region) that will allow government offices to base their services on this infrastructure; And will provide advanced, more flexible and convenient services, as well as complete compliance with Israeli law while the server farm itself is within the jurisdiction of the State of Israel.

The new infrastructure will operate in a configuration that preserves data residency and data sovereignty, prevents the flow of information outside the borders of the state and ensures that private information stored in such infrastructure is protected by state laws. Establishing this infrastructure will enable widespread use of cloud services for the government sector, the public sector and the Israeli economy as a whole.
According to the head of the Government Telecommunications Authority, Shahar Bracha, "The cloud's entry into Israel will be a revolution in the entire IT market in Israel and its strength is equal to the impact created by the Internet revolution upon entry into the Israeli economy."