South Australia promises imminent cloud policy

South Australia's public sector minister Susan Close has promised to soon release a central cloud computing policy for state government agencies, in response to 'growing demand' from IT executives for further guidance on the issue.

“We do not have a central policy mandating the adoption, or indeed the avoidance, of cloud computing,” she told a parliamentary estimates committee this week.

The government offered a tacit endorsement of cloud adoption in the state’s ‘SA Connected’ IT strategy, released late last year.

“SA Connected sets the strategic direction for ICT within the SA government. While it sets a clear expectation for agencies to invest in services (including the cloud) rather than buy hardware and software, it does not contain specific guidance on how to make that move,” Close said.

“The government agencies have made it really clear that they want some guidance in interacting with the cloud.”

The Office of the Chief Information Officer, led by government CIO Bret Morris, is currently leading the work.

“It will be distributed for consultation very soon,” Close promised.

To date, Queensland is the only government to have taken the plunge and implemented a ‘cloud first’ policy mandating the selection of cloud procurement options by default.

Other states, such as NSW and Victoria, have taken a softer approach, asking only that agencies include cloud options in their shortlist for consideration when making an approach to market.

Close oversees government IT for the state as part of the public sector portfolio she assumed following a post election cabinet reshuffle earlier this year.