Israeli Ministries Slow to Adopt Cloud Migration Despite AWS and Google Win
Despite Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud winning the Israeli government’s Nimbus tender, Israeli ministries are still predominantly working with Microsoft, which lost the cloud migration tender. Two years ago, the Ministry of Finance in Israel launched the ambitious Nimbus project with a NIS 4 billion budget, aiming to facilitate the migration of public data to the cloud. The project also aimed to develop more comprehensive data systems and provide advanced services.
The tender for the project was awarded to tech giants AWS and Google Cloud, who committed to migrating to Israel and investing billions of dollars to establish data centers. The primary objective was to ensure that sensitive data held by citizens, government workers, and security personnel was not kept overseas. However, 30 months after winning the Nimbus project, compatibility issues and delays in the launch of the cloud regions have hindered the migration process.
To transition government ministries to AWS and Google, the Ministry of Finance’s Accountant General’s office added sub-tenders, including one for a consulting company to assist ministries with the cloud migration process. However, the use of applications associated with the cloud environments of AWS and Google has not received approval yet, making it challenging for ministries to migrate smoothly. This delay has resulted in government employees having to continue using outdated versions of Microsoft Office and Outlook software, even though Microsoft failed to win the Nimbus tender.
One of the reasons for the slow progress in cloud migration is the exclusion of office software from the tender to avoid favoring Microsoft and Google, who possess comprehensive office software packages. Consequently, government employees still rely on locally hosted versions of Microsoft software. Furthermore, delays in reaching agreements with software providers and negotiations with Salesforce for customer management software (CRM) have hindered the transition process.
As a result, Microsoft has continued to win upgrade contracts with government ministries, as the company already supplies products that are not available on the public cloud. This expedites the contract process and allows ministries to continue working efficiently. However, tensions have arisen between the Ministry of Finance, AWS, Google, and software companies due to profit-sharing terms. The tech giants were given the opportunity to earn up to 20% of all government ministry expenses for software running on their platforms. Software companies have been resistant to reducing prices for government customers, further stalling the Nimbus project.
Additionally, government ministries continue to wait for cloud protection applications in the field of cybersecurity. While some ministries have made preparations to transition to the public cloud, such as the Ministry of Transport with AWS and the Ministry of Education with Google, a winning candidate for the cybersecurity tender has yet to be chosen from Check Point, Palo Alto Networks, Wiz, and Orca.
The Ministry of Finance’s Accountant General’s office emphasized its commitment to the project’s success and advancement, highlighting the numerous tender procedures currently underway for the purchase of cloud services. They anticipate publishing a central tender for CRM services in the coming weeks and launching the Marketplace for purchasing third-party services. These initiatives aim to accelerate the Nimbus project and facilitate cloud migration for government ministries.
The slow progress in cloud migration raises concerns about the Israeli government’s ability to fully embrace the benefits of the cloud, including improved data systems, advanced services, and reduced costs. As ministries continue to rely on Microsoft and face delays in adopting AWS and Google’s cloud services, further efforts are needed to expedite the migration process and maximize the potential of the cloud-based infrastructure for the Israeli economy.
