Government Clouds Lessons from International Experience and Implications for World Bank Projects John Wille Investment Climate Department September 2010

THE WORLD BANK World Bank Group Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency 2 Opportunities Offered by Government Clouds Shared services across government Common G2B and G2C service delivery platforms (e.g., shared business licensing applications) Shared ancillary applications (citizen/business authentication, online payments) Increased sustainability of G2B and G2C service delivery Reduced need for technology staff at the agency level (more superusers) Secure, redundant and professional application hosting at reduced cost Can move to “pay-as-you-go” model for technology services Cost-effective approach for small states and local governments Improved ability to implement eGovernment principles and standards Less incentive for “go it alone” approaches to implementing G2B and G2C applications Ability to align data standards and achieve interoperability

THE WORLD BANK World Bank Group Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency Kenya – implementing shared services framework across national and local governments, hosted in a national data center Includes license administration, payments, authentication Mauritius – implemented shared platform for business registration and licensing Singapore – has consolidated both hosting and back-office processing for many G2B and G2C services More infrastructure-as-a-service than SaaS at present Examples from WBG clients 3

THE WORLD BANK World Bank Group Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency Conceptual Design for Transactional Licensing 4

THE WORLD BANK World Bank Group Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency Where are the SaaS applications? Not a lot of product development yet in the G2B space… Is this a chicken and egg problem? Can donors aggregate demand to stimulate market forces? Data standards and portability – how can governments migrate seamlessly to new application vendors? Can the development community and trade associations work together to promote data standards for G2B apps? Data standards also important for regional integration efforts in trade, financial services, etc. (e.g., OHADA, EAC) Data sovereignty remains an issue – even at the ministry level. Cultural shifts required in government in order to successfully implement shared applications. Effective use of the cloud calls for a new, integrated WBG approach to implementing sectoral applications, particularly in providing connectivity In many IDA and conflict-affected countries, we implement connectivity (e.g., VSATs) at the project level rather than on a government-wide basis New approaches to WBG financing of ICT needed if clients are renting applications from the cloud instead of buying hardware and software Mobile cloud solutions require an integrated infrastructure for authentication, payments, etc. to minimize redundant data input by users. Challenges of Cloud and SaaS 5