Sri Lanka completes procurement for new government cloud

The government issued the Request for Proposals for a new Lanka Government Cloud environment (known as LGC 2.5) some months ago, and the procurement process was completed earlier this month, Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka on Digital Economy, told Biometric Update on Friday.

“The LGC 2.5 is now ready for the transfer of workloads from the existing system. LGC 2.5 provides a fully resilient and technologically advanced infrastructure with increased capacity and hence represents a major upgrade with respect to cloud capability.”

The next phase of Sri Lanka’s digital infrastructure advancement will be based on a hybrid multi-cloud architecture – combining resident, sovereign, and public cloud offerings, he added further. This configuration will also include specialized infrastructure for AI computing workloads.

Dr. Wijesuriya reiterated that through the establishment of this multi-cloud architecture, Sri Lanka aims to attract local as well as global hyper-scale cloud and data center operators to participate in the build-out of the country’s next-generation digital infrastructure. A formal process, commencing with expressions of interest and leading to procurement and contracting, will commence later this year.

“We are also preparing to launch a second cloud platform under a multi-cloud strategy, ensuring data replication, availability, and security at the highest standards,” the Minister concluded.

The Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) manages the Lanka Government Cloud, a centralized infrastructure for government services.

The version 1 of Lanka Government Cloud (LGC 1.0) was initially implemented to facilitate the Lanka Gate e-government platform and its components and enhanced later as a government cloud. Due to this, there are some limitations to enhance the LGC 1.0 further to cater to all government and emerging needs.

The country is in the midst of establishing a national digital ID, and maintaining the sovereignty and security of the sensitive biometric and biographical data involved is essential for public trust in the government’s digital transformation strategy.

Article Topics

cloud computing  |  cloud services  |  digital government  |  digital ID  |  procurement  |  SL-UDI (Sri Lanka Unique Digital Identity)  |  Sri Lanka