Tan Sian Lip
Vice President Solutions and Consulting CrimsonLogic Pte Ltd
“Sound architecture design is key to homogenising the view of the Cloud on the user-front. Different virtual machines have different security paradigms that have to be tied together and analysed to ensure there are no loopholes.”
An Indian Government Cloud will provide all participating agencies with a more economical and scalable infrastructure that will be flexible enough to handle specific requirements of the varied participating agencies. It will also give less well endowed agencies access to a more comprehensive set of shared services and data that they could otherwise not afford.
What is CrimsonLogic’s strategy for Cloud Computing?
CrimsonLogic has a rich heritage as an operator of e-Governance ‘Cloud Computing’ services such as Singapore’s TradeNet and SingPass, an e-Identity authentication system that enables Singaporeans to access online services offered by various government agencies.
Besides designing and implementing the systems, CrimsonLogic has been entrusted with the responsibility to run and maintain these systems, which requires the management of highly secure infrastructure to support them.
We are excited by Cloud Computing and the potential benefits it entails such as lowering infrastructure costs, utility computing, self-provisioning, essentially bring computing power to the hands of the users.
Forming strong alliances with specialist players in the Cloud Computing field and blending the technology with CrimsonLogic’s strong implementation experience in large-scale national projects is one of the approaches we are adopting to address our customers’ requirements. Given our holistic implementation expertise, we are keen to play a part on all levels of the Cloud stack which are Software-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and Infrastructure-as-a-Service.
Cloud Computing is expected to increasingly gain momentum amongst governments. We believe governments have enough scale, predictable seasonal demand surges, and a need to respond quickly to unpredictable changes in socio-economic conditions.
They also have a need to maintain highly secure computing environments as trustees and custodians of sensitive citizens’ data. Setting up private clouds provides a good balance of economic benefits whilst providing sufficient security to maintain public confidence in e-Governance services.
How do you see CrimsonLogic rendering its services in Cloud Computing to the Indian Government?
India is a large country with a large and varied public sector that includes agencies that are richly endowed with IT expertise and systems, as well as those that are not IT-savvy at all. An Indian Government Cloud will provide all participating agencies with a more economical and scalable infrastructure that will be flexible enough to handle specific requirements of the varied participating agencies.
It will also give less well endowed agencies access to a more comprehensive set of shared services and data that they could otherwise not afford.
What is the cost benefit that one foresees for Cloud Computing deployment?
We believe Cloud Computing will further enhance the adage ‘think big, start small’ in implementing projects. Too often, the high upfront investment cost in large-scale e-Government projects that CrimsonLogic is typically involved in is a deterrent to stakeholders. The capability of Cloud Computing enables planning for a large-scale system and yet starting with a smaller system that is highly and readily scalable. In our system implementation offerings, we are keen to use Cloud Computing, server virtualisation and consolidation to lower the TCO (total-cost-of-ownership).
What challenges do you foresee in terms of Cloud Computing implementation?
As with any new technological adoption, there will be a need to address potentially unknown issues of new security threats and also the readiness mindset of stakeholders in putting critical information and application in the ‘virtual space’.
How is reliability and security of different systems integrated
ensured to form a cloud to a common level?
Sound architecture design is key to homogenising the view of the Cloud on the user-front. Different virtual machines have different security paradigms that have to be tied together and analysed to ensure no loopholes. CrimsonLogic has a strong partner in our subsidiary RadianTrust which is an industry expert in security and penetration testing to do this.
What are the new business developments happening on cloud? What are some of your future plans in the domain of Cloud Computing?
CrimsonLogic has an Office of Technology Department that actively looks after new developments in the IT arena and explores how we can leverage on them. Besides exploring the potential of Cloud Computing for new engagements, we are also examining how existing systems can benefit from Cloud Computing.