Interior ministry to host cloud provider fair for public agencies

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said Tuesday it will hold a service briefing for the country's six major cloud service providers on Oct. 12, aimed at helping administrative and public agencies preparing to move to private clouds choose a provider that fits their own operations.

The event, at Post Tower in Myeong-dong, central Seoul, is open to information-system managers at agencies scheduled to move to private cloud services. It marks a departure from the supplier-led promotional format used in the past, with the ministry saying the focus is on giving buyer agencies the material to compare each provider's strengths themselves. The National Information Society Agency will explain what agencies should weigh when choosing a private cloud provider, so that they can review the various factors together and pick a company suited to their own characteristics, the ministry said.

Gabia, Naver Cloud, Samsung SDS, NHN Cloud, Kakao Enterprise and KT Cloud will take part, presenting their main services and running technical consultation booths, where agencies can compare migration plans, costs and technical support arrangements in one place. The ministry said the booths are meant to spare managers the inconvenience of contacting each provider separately to gather that information.

"This briefing was prepared with a focus on the convenience of the administrative and public agencies that are the buyers, and the biggest purpose is to give practical help to institutions preparing their projects more efficiently," said Hwang Kyu-cheol, head of the ministry's artificial intelligence government office.

The ministry will open the event by outlining its cloud policy direction for the public sector and its support plans for agencies moving to private clouds.

Looking ahead, the ministry plans to continue selecting systems for migration to private clouds next year, taking into account the security grades C, S and O under the National Intelligence Service's national network security framework guidelines, as well as the reorganized A1 to A4 grades for public-sector information systems, and to keep expanding the program through consultations with relevant institutions.

Hwang added that the ministry will keep offering support tailored to feedback from the field.