In this day and age, citizens expect from the State that information is accessible, affordable and direct. This new simplified access to services and to information involves the implementation of new technological solutions that meet the demands of both citizens and businesses.

Already firmly rooted in the digital age, as shown by the Digital Lëtzebuerg initiative, and keen to respond to these new challenges in a coordinated and considered fashion, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has now adopted a strategy for the use of Cloud technologies by its administrations.

The Cloud is an innovative solution that uses the Internet to provide access to computerised resources and IT applications on demand. It obviates the need for users to invest in their own expensive infrastructures, which would require maintenance and security measures. A distinction is usually drawn between different types of Cloud, including the public Cloud used by many organizations simultaneously and private Clouds with an architecture dedicated to a single organization.

The transition of administrations to the Cloud offers undeniable advantages, and will indeed be essential for the future use of cutting-edge technologies (big data, machine learning, etc.). The Cloud will provide the administrations with access to a large catalogue of solutions, both for their own requirements and for services provided to the population. Solutions hosted in a Cloud can be deployed and implemented quickly. They are also extremely flexible in their use of resources, and reduce costs.

An ambitious project of a ‘govCloud’, in the form of a private Cloud architecture hosted in the Grand Duchy and managed under the responsibility of the State’s Information Technologies Centre, for the benefit of the State’s administrations, has already been launched in collaboration with these administrations.

As soon as the use of a Cloud set up by another supplier becomes advantageous or indeed indispensable, it is important to ensure that the activity is properly supervised. In future, control of the risks connected with the use of Cloud services by the Grand Duchy’s administrations will be in the hands of a central service responsible for governance of the Cloud for the requirements of the State’s administrations and services. This central service will be tasked with advising and accompanying the Ministries and the State’s administrations and services in their procedures for using Cloud services, supervising the State’s use of the Cloud in order to detect possibilities for consolidation, and to ensure security and compliance with good practices and recommended frames of reference, particularly with regard to risk management.
Its role will also include maintaining an inventory of the Cloud solutions used, and ensuring that existing solutions and contracts are pooled, not only in order to make savings, but also to enable all parties concerned to take advantage of established knowledge.

On the basis of this well-established framework, all the Grand Duchy’s administrations will henceforth be able to continue their digital transformation, providing a constantly improving service to the country’s citizens and businesses.