The South Korean government announced that it would change entire systems used by administrative agencies, local governments, and public agencies to the cloud by 2025. However, it has been reported that only 20% of the agencies and governments are looking into private cloud computing services. While the industry expected that the private market would be vitalized with the South Korean government’s announcement, it has shown disappointment that the announcement was just an empty promise. Some within the industry pointed out that the government also needs to establish detailed guidelines and incentives in order to expand the option on private cloud computing services.
According to materials Lee Young, who is a member of the People Power Party, received from the Ministry of Interior and Safety regarding a year-by-year trend on transition to cloud computing services by administrative and public agencies on Tuesday, out of 10,009 systems used by public and administrative agencies, 7,720 (77.1%) of them chose public cloud computing services while the other 2,289 agencies (22.8%) selected private cloud computing services. In July last year, the South Korean government announced that it would convert entire systems used by the public sector to the cloud by 2025.
In 2020, there were 15,269 information systems used by administrative and public agencies. Out of these systems, about 10,000 systems are subjected to either use public cloud computing services from the National Information Resources Service and others or private cloud computing services from NAVER Cloud, NHN, and others.
After the Ministry of Interior and Safety looked the systems that are subjected to make a transition to a cloud computing service, 8 out of 10 systems are ready to make a transition to a public cloud computing service.
When the Lee’s office looked into a percentage of agencies preparing to make a transition to a private cloud computing service based on agencies’ type, 42% of local public companies, 34.7% of public agencies, and 62% of other public agencies replied that they are looking into private cloud computing services. On the other hand, only 6.8% of central administrative agencies, 11.5% of metropolitan local governments, and 13.2% of primary local governments from cities, districts, and counties replied that they are looking into private cloud computing services. “While the industry expected that the private market would be vitalized with the announcement made by the South Korean government, primary local governments and metropolitan local governments have shown a conservative stance towards making a transition to a private cloud computing service.” said a representative from the Lee’s office. “In other words, even central administrative agencies that need to take an initiative are favoring public cloud computing services over private services.”
The industry believes that it will be difficult to expect the private market to be vitalized based on this trend. An executive from a cloud company said that while the industry expected that usage rate of private cloud computing service by the public sector would increase rapidly since the South Korean government’s announcement, the industry has seen once again that the public sector actually does not have much intention of choosing private cloud computing services. This executive emphasized that in order for the public sector to play a role of priming water in the private cloud market based on the purpose of the Digital New Deal, there needs to be measures that will help expand adoption of private cloud computing services.
Lee said that administrative agencies that are subjected to convert their systems to the cloud are hesitant about introducing private cloud computing services and that the threshold of cloud is still when it comes to the public sector. He hoped that the Ministry of Interior and Safety to prepare guidelines on introducing private cloud computing services push for various incentives for choosing private services. An official from the ministry said that the survey on public agencies and administrative agencies is just a rough survey and that the South Korean government plans to prepare various ways to induce public agencies from choosing private cloud computing services.
Staff Reporter Kim, Jiseon | river@etnews.com