IaaS arrangement proposal dropped

The Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery, and Reform (DPENDR) has said there are “no immediate plans” to establish a central arrangement for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) following an “extensive consultation process”.

Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform with responsibility for public procurement and eGovernment, Ossian Smyth TD, believes that cloud technology can be used to streamline public procurement practices.

Following a detailed of analysis of public service demand for cloud services, the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) had intended to establish a central arrangement for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) by Q4 2023.

In September 2023, OGP published a tender competition to establish a central arrangement (contract) for IaaS at an estimated value of €60 million which could be availed of by all public service bodies.

However, amid a dearth of applications, the tender for the public sector cloud computing contract was withdrawn by January 2024.

A spokesperson for the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform told eolas Magazine: “After an extensive market engagement and consultation process, the OGP published a tender competition last year which closed on 3rd November 2023. While 13 tender responses were received, there were not enough compliant tender submissions for the OGP to establish a multi-supplier central arrangement for IaaS.”

The spokesperson continued: “There are no immediate plans to run a new competition and for now, use of the public cloud will continue with each requirement being assessed on its own merits using a risk-based approach.”

Úna Fitzpatrick from Ibec’s Technology Ireland criticised the contract as “unworkable” due to “fundamental difficulties”.

“The framework’s potential risks to its viability and the resulting reputational impact on Ireland remains a serious concern. If this process proves unsuccessful and fails to secure the participation of the majority of… providers currently involved with public sector customers, Irish public sector bodies could be left without an efficient means to procure the services necessary to advance their respective digitalisation ambitions,” she said.

Speaking with eolas Magazine in January 2024, AWS’s Head of Public Sector for the Republic of Ireland, Mark Finlay, commented: “While it is unfortunate that that [the conclusion] has not achieved a successful outcome, we do believe that there is a pathway towards getting a framework that works in a compliant manner for Irish public sector bodies.

“Continuing to engage with the Office of Government Procurement and the Irish Government in delivering that framework is an absolute priority for AWS, as well as working directly with public sector bodies to allow them deliver on their cloud transformation strategies.”

The first milestone informing the delivery of a new IaaS central arrangement was a market consultation on the contractual terms and conditions that would apply.

Welcoming the consultation in February 2023, the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland (AmCham) had praised “the progress that is being made on the Programme for Government’s promise to direct the OGP to support the adoption of new technologies through the development of new public service frameworks”.

The Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform has stated that digitalisation of public services is a key priority for the Government. The national digital strategy, Harnessing Digital – The Digital Ireland Framework, aims to drive and enable digital transition across the State’s economy and society.

Connecting Government 2030, the digital and ICT strategy for the State’s public service, further outlines the Government’s ambition to be regarded as a European leader in Digital Public Services. Adoption of cloud services is regarded as a key enabler of this digital transformation ambition.

In a written response to Paul Kehoe TD regarding the importance of cloud in the digitalisation of public services, Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform Paschal Donohoe TD outlined: “The use of cloud computing continues to be a key and growing platform supporting the delivery of innovative, modern digital public services.” Though he also emphasised: “Of course, a cloud-first approach does not mean cloud-only.”

The new arrangement aims to support public service bodies in their adoption of cloud services through providing easy access to the best available on demand and scalable compute, storage and networking IaaS solutions. The tender process concluded at the end of 2023 with ambitions further outlined for the subsequent central arrangement to be available “shortly thereafter”.

Cloud benefits and greening procurement

In April 2024, the Government launched the Green Public Procurement Strategy 2024-2027, which aims to drive green public procurement practices in government department and agencies.

If cloud technology is integrated into procurement practices, the potential exists for the enablement of these green ambitions as cloud computing allows for maximised return due to the efficiency of features such as virtualisation and dynamic scaling. This would reduce idle capacity and energy waste.

The Office of Government Procurement is currently building its data retention capacity, from which there is an ambition for data analysis to be used in order to establish best practices. Use of cloud in the procurement data process is further cited by procurement experts as contributing to the green agenda through reduction of paper use and ability to improve rates of remote working in the procurement sector, both of which result in reduced waste and reduced emissions in other sectors emanating from procurement, such as transport.

Speaking about the prospective new arrangement upon the launch of the consultation, Minister of State Ossian Smyth TD said:

“With cloud technology, the State rapidly delivered vaccination and test scheduling and contact tracing services during the pandemic. These systems proved resilient during the HSE cyberattack in 2021. Now, outside of a crisis, the State needs this technology to offer rapidly scalable public services.

“OGP has launched a ground-breaking competition, which will enable public bodies to digitise the services that they offer. The new central procurement arrangement will enable these bodies to procure IaaS solutions in a way that is compliant with all relevant regulations and is efficient and easy to use for both buyers and suppliers.

“Cloud service providers have long sought a central procurement arrangement for cloud services and I acknowledge the market’s engagement with this consultation process with OGP that preceded this competition.”