Sri Lanka’s first cloud platform ‘Lanka Cloud’ launched

Construction of a top class IT university in Sri Lanka revealed at the launch

 

By Cassandra Mascarenhas

Furthering the Government of Sri Lanka’s vigorous adoption of e-governance, an extension of the Lanka Government Gate project, ‘Lanka Cloud,’ Sri Lanka’s first-ever cloud computing platform, was launched last week by the Lanka Government Information Infrastructure (LGII).

The LGII has been mandated to administer the information infrastructure of the Government, which includes the Lanka Government Network, formerly administered by Samsung Lanka Ltd. Lanka Cloud, which was implemented by the ICTA, will be maintained by LGII.

The cloud platform was soft-launched by Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga. “This really is fantastic and is like a dream come true as we have been working on this for years. I am keen to see this being put to good use but there needs to be awareness programmes and such in order to spread the word and educate the public and government organisations. We need to keep it simple,” observed Weeratunga.

He revealed that plans are now underway to build a top class IT university in the country in order to generate the critical mass of IT personnel that is badly needed by Sri Lanka’s booming IT/BPO sector. “We are looking for the necessary funding but the blueprints for the university are already being prepared and it is just a matter of time before actual work on it commences.”

“The LGII which has been mandated with the management and maintenance of the institutional infrastructure of the Government of Sri Lanka needs to be made stronger by incorporating sustainable development into the organisation so that we can effectively promote all the applications being developed for the benefit of the public,” stated Lanka Government Information Infrastructure Chairman Ravi Senanayake in his welcoming remarks.

He noted that e-governance has been prevalent in the country since the ’70s and since then, government institutions have dabbled with several versions of e-governance. District based applications were then promoted through the Ministry of Home Affairs due to the lack of any other institutions. “I need to emphasise on the institutional setup in the late ’80s which led to the successes in the past which has brought us to where we are today.”

ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura added that the cloud comprises of the infrastructure ecosystem that has now been put in place, noting that the LGII has a huge responsibility to keep developing the cloud and other applications that have been launched previously.

“This is basically a private cloud platform for the Government of Sri Lanka which will allow any government organisation to put up their data on it so that it is easily accessible to other organisations and the general public. Over 50 per cent of the resources we currently possess are underutilised and this will streamline processes as organisations will only have to pay for what they use. The cloud also has built-in scalability and no hindrances which will allow us to scale up as necessary in the future,” he explained.

The one major issue Sri Lanka has encountered in the past is the initial investment cost on hardware, pointed out ICTA Re-Engineering Government Programme Director Wasantha Deshapriya, adding that there are other challenges that crop as well further down the line.

“This landmark launch will ensure a highly flexible solution for the Government. The setup has been designed to be able to create over 150 servers and incorporates a virtualised platform. A server can be created when necessary in the space of just two hours,” he revealed.

Organisations will be able to pay per usage at the end of the month and will result in major cost savings across industries. Deshapriya added that a notable point was the Government’s conversion from a ‘capex’ (capital expenditure) to an ‘opex’ (operating expense) model. The launch of the cloud platform will also see a marked improvement in performance and has taken off the biggest barrier in implementing e-governance in Sri Lanka.

Services such as revenue licensing, police and other services will be accessible to the general public via the cloud. The trilingual platform will also provide closely monitored online forums for users to publish their comments, criticisms and general feedback.

–Pix by Lasantha Kumara