The Ministry of IT and Telecom has established a Cloud Acquisition Office in the building of the National Information Technology Board.

Sources in the IT Ministry told ProPakistani that the Cloud Acquisition Office has been notified at the federal level under the Cloud First Policy.

According to the sources, the Sindh Government will also establish a Cloud Acquisition office as soon as it has already approved the cloud policy adoption framework. According to MoITT, the ministry will provide all technical support to the Sindh Government regarding the establishment of the Cloud Acquisition Office. The Chief Secretary Sindh will also nominate a representative for the Cloud Office in the federation.

The Ministry of IT and Telecom says that the governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had prepared a cloud policy framework, but due to political instability, this policy could not be approved.

The Ministry of IT and Telecom is in touch with the governments of Balochistan, Azad Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan. Once these governments approve the policy framework, they will be provided with technical assistance in setting up the Cloud Acquisition Office.

According to Cloud First Policy, the Cloud Acquisition Office (CAO) will facilitate Public Sector Entities (PSE) in designing, architecting, procuring, building, migrating, and managing their workloads and applications on the cloud. Cloud Acquisition Office will initiate call-offs for the requirements of PSE. Only Cloud Service Providers (CSP) accredited by the Cloud Office will be eligible to take part in call-offs. CSP with the most advantageous offering will be selected in the call-off.

According to Cloud Policy, Service Level Agreement will be signed between the Cloud Service Providers and Public Sector Entities. Any breach of the Service Level Agreement between PSE and CSP will be reported to the Cloud Acquisition Office by the Public Sector Entities. Cloud Acquisition Office will report continued serious non-compliance of Service Level Agreement by Cloud Service Providers to Cloud Office.

Apart from other remedies available to PSE, the Cloud Office will take appropriate action depending upon the nature and seriousness of non-compliance.

Source: Pro Pakistani