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Doha – Qatar

The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) has launched the Government Cloud Service in association with MEEZA, and the Media Analytics Service, adding both of them to a list of shared services MOTC provides to government entities within the framework of Qatar Digital Government 2020.

The first is a government cloud based Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). It utilizes dedicated government network and focuses on delivering the service over a private and highly secure environment for government entities. This helps those entities to reduce cost on connectivity as well as improve agility. Through the cloud selfservice portal, IT administrators can create virtual servers in minutes in conjunction with MOTC to be compliant with global systems and standards.

Media Analytics Service allows government entities to monitor, follow and analyze what is being published about them on social media and traditional electronic media, thus helping them monitor information and relevant published topics, follow up their indicators, measure public opinion, interact with them and identify potential crises for action. It will also help them in the preparation of the necessary reports in this regard easily and through dashboards provided by MOTC to service subscribers.

“We are glad to launch these two new services as part of MOTC’s plans for achieving the strategic objectives of the Qatar Digital Government 2020 Strategy, which aims to create efficiency in government administration, maximize opportunities to make better use of public funds in accordance with the Qatar National Vision 2030 that aims to ensure fast and reliable accessibility to information technology with reduced operational and capital expenditures,” said MOTC Assistant Undersecretary of Government Information Technology Sector Mr. Hassan Jassim Al-Sayed.

“The Government Cloud Service will provide a standardized virtual server that takes responsibility for configuration and operations of government entities' operating system (OS), software, and databases,” he noted. Processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources are now provided where entities can deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications.

“MOTC also provides the Media Analytics Service to government entities,” he said, “to allow them to follow up and analyze what’s being published about them on media, social media and the traditional electronic media, thus helping them to have instant follow-up of public opinion and deal with it properly. This, eventually, helps enhance interaction and online engagement between the public and government entities.”

MEEZA CEO Eng. Ahmad Mohamed Al-Kuwari said; "We are glad to be a part of this launch. Among the main business benefits of Government Cloud —just as in other cloud offerings—is that it enables a level of agility not possible with traditional IT infrastructures that rely on in country datacenters. Further, being multitenant, this is both highly efficient and scalable, as well as cost-effective. Cloud computing services are compatible with MOTC’s national information assurance policies. They also follow governance mechanisms based on highest world standards such as ISO certifications for quality management and information defense, as well as the ISO20000, which is the international IT service management (ITSM) standard that enables IT organizations; whether in-house, outsourced or external, to ensure that their ITSM processes are aligned with business needs and world best practice. It also provides guidance on cloud computing services deployment and application.”

In Feb. last year, MOTC and MEEZA signed an agreement per which MEEZA will provide government cloud and infrastructure services for government entities within the framework of achieving the goals and objectives of the Qatar Digital Government 2020 Strategy.