European Commission Wants Cloud Services Framework

The European Commission (EC) is tendering for a framework in which it will acquire its first cloud services.

It is expected that the framework will last two years and include around 2500 virtual machines and 2500 TB of storage.

According to the tender, which was released by the Directorate-General for Informatics (Digit) at the EC, around 75% of the framework will be available for European Union (EU) institutions rather than the Commission.

It adds the machines and storage available to the EC would represent a maximum of about 15% of its current in-house capacity.

The document reveals that the framework will include up to five suppliers and is divided into three lots: private cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS), public cloud IaaS, and public cloud platform as a service (PaaS).

The news follows the EC’s move in June last year to begin testing detailed cloud guidelines aimed at helping users save money and increasing trust in cloud technology.

It claims that it will help cloud users ensure essentials elements are included in plain language in contracts they make with cloud providers.

The EC also says its guidelines require explanations in simple terms of how available and reliable a cloud service is, as well as security levels, quality of support services and data management.

Following The UK’s Lead

The idea that other governments and organisations across the world are interested in developing frameworks similar to the UK government’s G-Cloud is one that was approached at last month’s THINK Cloud Vendors event.

G-Cloud programme director Tony Singleton told delegates at the event that the framework conforms to EU procurement laws, but these laws are likely to influence differences in the EC framework.

Singleton also revealed that the UK is holding very early stage talks with Denmark about developing its own G-Cloud.

© 24N.biz