In a public-private collaboration, National Informatics Centre Services Inc. (NICSI) and Jio Platforms Limited (JPL) have launched the National Government Cloud (NGC), a pay-as-you-go cloud service designed to support government digital initiatives. This cloud service will reportedly operate through NICSI's data centers, with both capital and operational costs shared between the partners, according to a ET report.
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Investment and Infrastructure Sharing
"There were capital investments which are to be shared, NICSI is providing data center space and non-IT infrastructure. The capital investments and energy consumption will be shared between both parties" the report quoted RK Mishra, managing director (MD) of NICSI as saying.
Jio Platforms will reportedly manage National Government Cloud services for seven years, with strategic control and governance overseen by NICSI and the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
Capacity and Scalability for Government Demand
"There is a lot of demand from the user departments. There is plenty of availability of cloud resources as only 20 percent of capacity has currently been utilised. There is provision in place to augment more on-demand capacity if consumption reaches around 70 percent," Mishra said, according to the report.
The official added that a unified cloud management system with a self-service portal, tailored to government processes, has been rolled out for end-users, enabling resource provisioning, usage monitoring, cloud consumption control, and simplified governance, the report further said.
The government, in collaboration with Jio Platforms, is actively monitoring cloud platform activities, including onboarding, operations, management, and technical troubleshooting.
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Revenue-Sharing and Discounted Rates
The partnership also includes a revenue-sharing model aimed at providing competitive rates, with discounts up to 20 percent for long-term commitments. The official believes that the collaboration would significantly enhance national cloud infrastructure, and drive efficiency and innovation in government-run digital services, the report said.
In 2023, requests for proposals (RFPs) were issued to Indian cloud vendors to manage NIC cloud solutions as part of the Meghraj 2.0 program, aimed at enhancing national cloud infrastructure and supporting multi-cloud services. Jio Platforms Limited (JPL) was chosen to deploy and manage secure, scalable cloud services for NICSI, serving multiple government departments and agencies.
