1. technology and computing

Industry Consultation Note – Cloud Management Office
Industry Consultation Note - Cloud Management Office (CMO)
MeghRaj Policy
Government of India views Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as an
opportunity to achieve its vision for sustainable socioeconomic development. National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) has given further impetus, to strengthen the e-Governance
initiatives in the country. Cloud Computing Services provide the new model of offering
services (including IaaS, PaaS and SaaS) to the users at fast pace which is also cost
effective and to further this objective, DeitY has announced MeghRaj Policy to provide
strategic
direction
for
adoption
of
cloud
services
by
the
Government
(http://deity.gov.in/content/gi-cloud-initiative-meghraj). The aim of the cloud policy is to
realize a comprehensive vision of a government private cloud environment available for
use by central and state government line departments, districts and municipalities to
accelerate their ICT-enabled service improvements.
Cloud Management Office (CMO)
To facilitate the implementation of the MeghRaj policy and realize its vision, DeitY is
proposing to setup a Cloud Management Office (CMO) that will take a lead role in
operationalizing the cloud initiative. CMO will help in setting up of an ecosystem for GI
Cloud leading to
faster implementation of the cloud policy to realize the intended
benefits of GI Cloud. The end objective of the CMO is to facilitate publishing of GI Cloud
services through a single GI Cloud Services Directory and enable end user government
departments, both at the Centre and States, leverage the cloud services.
The Cloud Management Office (CMO) will operate across three verticals:
1. Architecture Management Group (AMG) with the responsibility of Identification of
the relevant Standards and development of the required guidelines.
2. Empanelment
and
Accreditation
Group
(E&AG)
with
the
responsibility
of
empaneling the Cloud Auditors and Accreditation of Services offered by the Cloud
Service Providers
3. Capacity Building & Advisory Services Group (CB&AG) with the responsibility of
creating awareness about the cloud initiative and assisting the end user
departments in migrating to the GI Cloud
The detailed scope of each of three verticals under Cloud Management Office (CMO) is
provided under Annexure I: Scope of Cloud Management Office.
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Industry Consultation Note – Cloud Management Office
Objective of the Industry Consultations
DeitY intends to float a Request for Proposal (RFP) shortly to select an agency (or
agencies) to setup the Cloud Management Office and carry out the activities envisaged
for the CMO. National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) is assisting DeitY in the
preparation of the RFP. DeitY recognizes that the nature of deliverables under the CMO
are complex and require a wide-array of expertise and skills. Successful realization of the
outcomes envisaged for the Cloud Management Office requires getting on-board the
right agencies and right mix of subject matter experts dealing with the leading edge
technologies.
Since this is a relatively niche area, it was decided to hold consultations with the various
stakeholders in the industry to seek inputs and suggestions on the approach, scope, and
model of engagement before floating the RFP for selection of an agency (or agencies) for
setting up the CMO. The responses will be reviewed by DeitY & NISG and used to
develop the RFP for selection of an agency (or agencies) for setting up the CMO. Based
upon the information gathered in the Industry Consultation Exercise, DeitY & NISG may
invite respondents who submit substantial responses to subsequent meetings to discuss
responses.
Details to be provided in the Response
Considering the details provided on the Cloud Management Office (CMO) under Annexure
I: Scope of Cloud Management Office, your response may address the items listed
below:
1. Introduction of your organization and cloud related services
a. A brief introduction of your company, including nature of business and contact
details of representatives
b. An overview of your company‟s services / offerings related to cloud services
(cloud service provider, cloud technology provider / OEM, system integrator,
cloud auditors, cloud security experts, advisory & consulting services, capacity
building services,…)
2. Relevant Inputs on the below:
a. Overall Approach & Operating Model of CMO with the three verticals
b. Scope & Deliverables of Architecture Management Group (AMG)
c. Scope & Deliverables of Empanelment and Accreditation Group (E&AG)
d. Scope & Deliverables of Capacity Building & Advisory Services Group (CB&AG)
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Industry Consultation Note – Cloud Management Office
3. Suggestions on the team structure and expertise required in the three verticals
of the CMO considering the complexity & diversity of the activities to be taken up
4. Interest in responding to the Request for Proposal (RFP) to setup the Cloud
Management Office. If yes, area of interest of organization to participate in the
initiative and your relative experience in this domain.
5. If you intend to respond to the RFP for setting up CMO, please provide your
responses to the below:
a. Would you suggest having a single RFP for selection of CMO or different RFPs
for each of the three verticals under CMO? Please provide the rationale for the
suggestion.
b. In case of a single RFP for selection of CMO with all the three verticals, please
state your preference for the below:
i.
Prefer to bid as a single entity without consortium or sub-contracting
ii.
Prefer to bid as a single entity with sub-contracting some functions
(indicate the functions to allow sub-contracting)
iii.
Prefer to bid as a consortium (indicate the area(s) that your
organization will be responsible for within the consortium)
c. A brief description of the approach your company intend to take in providing
the services contemplated under the Cloud Management Office (CMO)
6. If not interested in participating in the RFP process for setting up the Cloud
Management Office, what are the areas where you can provide inputs to CMO during
the project and provide any relevant suggestions on the methodology / platform for
DeitY to seek your inputs.
7. Any other inputs / feedback / information helpful for designing the RFP for CMO
Important Dates
This consultation note is available at http://nisg.org/announcement. Consequently,
all
respondents
are
invited
to
submit
information,
comments,
feedback
and
recommendations on the proposed approach, scope and model of engagement of the
CMO. Respondents are invited to propose alternative solutions to any one or more of the
concepts described in this note.
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Industry Consultation Note – Cloud Management Office
Your answer must be provided in narrative format no later than 5:00 pm May 27,
2015. It is requested that responses be in portable document format (PDF). Response
packages should be sent by email to the NISG at [email protected].
For questions regarding this note, please contact:
Varun Mittal
[email protected]
Tel: +91 9582942121
The Industry Consultation does not commit DeitY or NISG to enter into a binding
agreement in respect of the project with any of the stakeholders. The release of this note
does not guarantee that the DeitY will, in the end, complete an acquisition. This note is
for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation for bids,
proposals or quote and is not to be construed as a commitment by the DeitY or NISG to
issue a request for proposal / quote or award of a contract as a result of this
request. This announcement is not a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a Request for Quote
(RFQ).
DeitY or NISG will not reimburse respondents for any cost associated with
information submitted in response to this request. DeitY can accept comments on this
topic at any time, but comments would be most useful by the provided deadline.
Confidentiality
All the responses and accompanying documentation submitted against this Note will
become the property of NISG. NISG is not restricted in its rights to use or disclose any
or all of the information contained in the proposal and can do so without compensation
to the bidders. NISG has the right to use the services of external experts to study the
responses with adequate protection of the confidentiality information.
Any document submitted in response to this Note that contains confidential information
must be marked on the outside as containing confidential information. Each page upon
which confidential information appears must be marked as containing confidential
information. The confidential information must be clearly identifiable to the reader
wherever it appears. All other information will not be treated as confidential.
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Industry Consultation Note – Cloud Management Office
All information marked confidential in the responses is only for use in planning for the
future RFP.
Confidential information will be reviewed by DeitY and NISG, a firm
providing advisory services to DeitY within the scope of contract, subject to a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) including but not limited to commercial or financial data
obtained from or contained in contractor/vendor submitted documents and proposals.
Otherwise, no information marked confidential included in this document or in
discussions connected to it may be disclosed to any other party outside of the DeitY and
NISG.
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Industry Consultation Note – Cloud Management Office
Annexure I: SCOPE OF CLOUD MANAGEMENT OFFICE (CMO)
MeghRaj Policy and GI Cloud
Government of India views Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as an
opportunity to achieve its vision for sustainable socioeconomic development. The present
initiative is to bring about sustainable e-Governance, in line with the e-Governance
vision and its expansion in the country. National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) has given
further impetus, to strengthen the e-Governance initiatives in the country.
Cloud Computing Services provide the new model of offering services (including IaaS,
PaaS and SaaS) to the users at fast pace which is also cost effective. DeitY has
announced MeghRaj Policy (http://deity.gov.in/content/gi-cloud-initiative-meghraj) to provide
strategic direction for adoption of cloud services by the Government. MeghRaj policy of
Deity states that “Government departments at the Centre and States to first evaluate
the option of using the GI Cloud for implementation of all new projects funded by the
government. Existing applications, services and projects be evaluated to assess whether
they should migrate to the GI Cloud.”
The aim of the cloud policy is to realize a comprehensive vision of a government private
cloud environment available for use by central and state government line departments,
districts and municipalities to accelerate their ICT-enabled service improvements (the
NeGP Mission Mode Projects and other applications), to support the cost-effective
ongoing maintenance and evolution of the underlying ICT-enabled environment, and to
support the overall vision of the NeGP, (i.e. improved government services to the
common man).
As per the MeghRaj policy it is proposed to:
a. Setup GI Cloud: GI Cloud, Government of India‟s cloud computing environment, will
be a set of discrete cloud computing environments spread across multiple locations,
built on existing or new (augmented) infrastructure, following a set of common
protocols, guidelines and standards issued by the Government of India. The GI Cloud
services will be published through a GI Cloud Services Directory. The GI Cloud
environment is envisaged to be initially established – building on the infrastructure
investments already made or augmentation of the same – by the creation of discrete
cloud computing environments at the national and state levels termed as „National
Clouds‟ and „State Clouds‟ respectively. Based on the demand assessment and taking
into account security related considerations, government may also engage the
services of private cloud providers.
b. Create eGov AppStore: eGov AppStore will include the setting up of a common
platform on National Clouds to host and run applications, developed by government
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Industry Consultation Note – Cloud Management Office
agencies or private players, which are easily customisable and configurable for reuse
by various government agencies or departments at the central and state levels
without investing effort in the development of such applications.
c. Publish through GI Cloud Services Directory: The GI Cloud services and the
applications in eGov AppStore will be published through a single GI Cloud Services
Directory for use by government departments or agencies at the Centre and States.
Implementation Strategy
Implementing the MeghRaj Policy to realize the GI Cloud Services and facilitate adoption
of GI Cloud services by the end user departments requires multi-pronged approach.
a. Identification of the relevant Standards and development of the required
guidelines
Below diagram provides the high-level view of the cloud ecosystem with the various
actors along with the indicative roles.
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Industry Consultation Note – Cloud Management Office
The cloud providers would require the common standards & guidelines on the security,
interoperability, data portability, SLAs, contractual terms & conditions, service definitions
that they would need to adhere to in order to be part of the GI Cloud environment.
From a cloud consumer perspective, the consumers would require guidelines on selecting
a cloud service provider within the GI Cloud Services Directory, guidelines on integrating
the cloud services with the internal IT systems and the recommended contractual terms
& conditions along with the service levels that will have to be executed between the
cloud consumer and the cloud service provider.
The below diagram depicts the need for various guidelines / standards from the
stakeholder perspective.
In order to realize the policy and facilitate cloud services‟ adoption by the Center and
States, there is a need to define the GI Cloud Reference Architecture, identify the
common standards and service definitions; develop guidelines with respect to security,
service delivery, interoperability, portability that the cloud service providers have to
adhere to, for the departments to leverage cloud services.
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Industry Consultation Note – Cloud Management Office
b. Facilitate Setting up of GI Cloud
Once the standards and guidelines are published, the Cloud Service Providers will need
to get accredited by DeitY to become part of the GI Cloud. The accreditation of offered
cloud services will require certification of compliance to the published standards and
guidelines. It is expected that the audit of cloud services to verify the compliance will be
carried out by the cloud auditors. The cloud auditors will be empanelled through an
empanelment process and will have to adhere to the audit guidelines that will be
published by DeitY.
c. Capacity Building of the end-user departments
There is a key need to create the awareness of these initiatives in the user departments,
showcase the advantages of migrating to cloud services and ways to address the
potential risks for faster adoption of the policy. The departments will also need
considerable handholding support in navigating the applicable standards & guidelines
and migrating to the cloud services. Further, the capacity building initiatives need to be
taken up at the department level to enhance the capabilities of the department to
procure & manage the contracts with the cloud service providers.
Cloud Management Office (CMO)
DeitY is proposing to setup a Cloud Management Office (CMO) that will take a lead role
in the facilitating the implementation of the MeghRaj policy. CMO will help in setting up
of an ecosystem for GI Cloud leading to
faster implementation of the cloud policy to
realize the intended benefits of GI Cloud. The end objective of the CMO is to facilitate
publishing of GI Cloud services through a single GI Cloud Services Directory and enable
end user government departments, both at the at the Centre and States, leverage the
cloud services.
The Cloud Management Office (CMO) will operate across three verticals:
1. Architecture Management Group (AMG) with the responsibility of Identification of
the relevant Standards and development of the required guidelines.
2. Empanelment
and
Accreditation
Group
(E&AG)
with
the
responsibility
of
empaneling the Cloud Auditors and Accreditation of Services offered by the Cloud
Service Providers
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Industry Consultation Note – Cloud Management Office
3. Capacity Building & Advisory Services Group (CB&AG) with the responsibility of
creating awareness about the cloud initiative and assisting the end user
departments in migrating to the GI Cloud
Architecture Management Group (AMG)
AMG will be responsible for identifying the standards and developing the guidelines as
necessary for implementation of GI Cloud and its adoption by the end user departments.
It is envisaged that requirements for new guidelines will be discovered as the policy gets
implemented on ground. Architecture Management Group (AMG) will take up the
additional scope that falls within its original objective of assisting DeitY in identifying the
relevant standards and developing GI cloud specific guidelines.
Major functions of AMG include the following:

Developing the GI Cloud reference architecture

Identify (or develop where required) standards and guidelines with respect to the
underlying components (e.g. security, service delivery, infrastructure & service
management, SLAs, portability, interoperability,..) of the cloud architecture

Defining guidelines and model RFPs, SLA, contract management, etc in consultation
with industry and based on international best practices for the MeghRaj

Design application development / migration guidelines for deploying applications on
cloud environments

Design end-user guidelines to assist the end user departments in evaluating and
migrating to cloud services

Evolve a Business model for MeghRaj

Identify the applicable standards and develop guidelines for delivering GI Cloud
Services

Formulate the processes and guidelines for empanelment / accreditation of cloud
service providers, meeting the laid down standards and guidelines

Design new procurement guidelines for procuring services & applications through GI
Cloud Services Directory

Design end-user guidelines to assist the end user departments in evaluating and
migrating to cloud services
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Industry Consultation Note – Cloud Management Office
Empanelment and Accreditation Group (E&AG)
E&AG will assist in overall program management of the cloud initiatives in DeitY and
more importantly assisting in notifying the standards and guidelines recommended by
Architecture Management Group (AMG) and operationalizing the accreditation processes
for cloud service providers, empanelment processes for empaneling applications from
private vendors on the eGov AppStore.
Major functions of Empanelment and Accreditation Group (E&AG) include the following:

Empanelment / Accreditation of cloud service providers meeting the laid down
standards and guidelines, that the government departments can leverage without
going through rigorous individual evaluations & procurement process with the help of
AMG

Handling of day-to-day operational aspects related to project execution

Assistance in management of disbursal of funds

Conduct follow-ups, monitoring progress and regular reporting to the MeghRaj Apex
Committee
Capacity Building & Advisory Services Group (CB&AG)
CB&AG will be responsible for:

Creating awareness about the cloud technologies, GI Cloud Strategy, MeghRaj
initiative and implementation roadmap, cloud policies, standards, guidelines, and
available cloud services through workshops at both and States

Design training curriculum and content for conducting capacity building programs on
the cloud technologies & services, either as separate programs or integrated into the
existing CIO, SteP and other e-Gov training programs

Conducting capacity building programs to enhance the capabilities of the department
to procure & manage the cloud services

Develop case studies of projects successfully leveraging cloud services to showcase
cloud technologies and applications

Providing advisory services to assist departments in migrating or adopting cloud
services
CMO will also support DietY in overall implementation, coordination and monitoring the
progress of the cloud related initiatives including GI Cloud environment, eGov Appstore,
and GI Cloud Services Directory.
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