Vietnam - What policy for cloud computing in Vietnam?

As the story about applying cloud computing in Vietnam is getting hot, policy makers have been urged to set up a legal framework to “drive the clouds to the orbit”.

Should Vietnam ride on a long rein?

Opinions still vary about whether to set up the policy specifically designed for the applications of cloud computing.

Tran Viet Huan, a senior executive of IBM Vietnam, said that developed countries all pursue the policy on encouraging cloud computing. The subjects joining cloud computing all have to bear the regulations stipulated in relating laws already.

For example, the EU and Malaysia have the law on protecting the privacy of personal data, which means that the data on the clouds will also be covered by the law. Therefore, the existence of specific policies for cloud computing may hinder the development of the new technology.

Nguyen Manh Quyen, Deputy Director of the E-Commerce and Information Technology Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, also thinks that no need to design a specific policy for cloud computing.

Quyen said that Vietnam now has the Information Technology Law and, a government decree and other legal documents guiding the implementation of the law already. If it has one more decree, this may install a barrier to the development of cloud computing. It may happen that the legal framework only facilitates the big cloud computing service providers, while it does not serve as the “playing field” for all enterprises, thus leading to unhealthy competition.

However, Chu Tien Dung, Director of the Quang Trung Software Park Development Company, disagrees. He thinks that the State just needs to give advices to private enterprises and let the enterprises to make decision themselves. However, it is necessary to issue the legal documents applied to state agencies which stipulate the public spending on cloud computing.

Especially, he believes that it is necessary to set up a special subject on cloud computing at state agencies which show the guidance on the implementation, purchases, spending limits and the ways of using services.

Nguyen Trong Duong, Director of the Information Technology of the Ministry of Information and Communication, also thinks that it is necessary to draw up an overall development program, or state agencies and enterprises would make investment in a large scale which would lead to the waste to the state budget.

Duong went on to say that the Ministry of Information and Communication is considering drawing up a mechanism on applying cloud computing at state agencies. The ministry plans to issue the regulation on applying cloud computing under the mode of public private partnership PPP or service outsourcing.

Government community cloud needed

Cloud computing, with its great advantages, proves to be the inevitable tendency, no matter if the government encourages the development of the new technology.

When using cloud computing, agencies and businesses can save their money. Instead of having to build up portals for themselves, every ministry, branch or locality can use portal service on the basis of the cloud computing. In this case, they do not have to pay money for infrastructure, fixed assets, software and hardware, while they only have to pay for leasing infrastructure and service fee.

This proves to be the greatest advantage which can persuade enterprises and agencies to use cloud computing, especially in the current circumstances, when the state has to fasten its belt. A lot of provinces and cities only receive 10-20 billion dong a year for developing information technology, while some others receive five billion dong only, which is not enough to purchase hardware.

Experts have suggested forming up the community cloud of the government, following some other countries in the world.

Japan, for example, has public cloud which allows database and main apps of the government run on the infrastructure only. Singapore builds Government Cloud with the focus on e-government apps.

Dang Duc Mai, Head of the Informatics and Statistics department under the Ministry of Finance, also thinks that it is necessary to put public services into the clouds at the government level instead of smaller clouds at ministry or branch levels.

Source: Buu Dien/ VNN

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