Launched in April 2019, the Extended Monaco program is managed by the Interministerial Delegation in charge of the Digital Transition (DITN). Its goal is to increase the share of digital technology in public services.
And to accelerate in this register, like many private companies, the Monegasque government had chosen the cloud. To operate these services, the State has set up an operator, Monaco Cloud, of which it is the majority shareholder.
A local and state-controlled operator
Prince Albert II had also set a course in terms of cloud strategy: “Monaco will be the first country in Europe to launch its sovereign state cloud.” In this context, the Monegasque operator has decided to get closer to the publisher VMware.
Monaco Cloud becomes a supplier to VMware Sovereign Cloud. It will rely on the solution, which it will operate on behalf of the Principality. The principle of the offering is to partner with local cloud providers to create clouds that comply with data privacy legislation.
Concretely, the chosen architecture based on VMware technologies aims to guarantee that the data remains stored on Monegasque territory. The processing of this heritage will also be carried out entirely in the country.
“This approach allows the Government to protect its critical data, while leveraging the power of the Cloud to modernize its public services, improve the experiences of its citizens, and offer greater economic value to Monegasque companies,” indicates VMware.
AI experiments in progress
The local cloud operator therefore has an infrastructure based in Monaco. The company plans to adopt a business recovery plan to increase the resilience of its services. To this end, a backup of the data will be carried out on a site of the e-Embassy of Monaco in Luxembourg.
For the government, the sovereign cloud solution is not only intended to protect the data of its citizens. It must also cover the needs of small businesses, “many of which do not have the necessary expertise internally” in data security and compliance.
The CIO of Monaco, Jean Charles, believes that the State’s cloud strategy will allow it to “assert itself as a major digital hub”, as is particularly the case in the finance sector. To this end, the IT decision maker also relies on AI.
Experiments are currently underway. “Our approach must be carried out with caution, but by adopting a bold, inspiring and revolutionary vision”, sets the CIO as a trajectory.
Davy Lissoir, CISO of Monaco Cloud, insists on native consideration of data security from the design phase. “We comply with the strictest national data compliance regulations,” he assures.