The French Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (DILA) has awarded Accenture (NYSE: ACN) a three-year contract to design, build and deliver its Next Generation Data Center, the G-Cloud, in France. The contract supports the government’s strategic technology goals to create savings by controlling costs.
Accenture will work with DILA to build a more flexible IT infrastructure to increase access, availability and performance of nationwide public services offered to French citizens. The information will be stored on the country’s first government cloud.
DILA, one of the branches of the prime minister’s central administration, oversees administrative information, legal distribution and public announcements. DILA’s decision to create the G-Cloud enables the government to standardize new services for citizens and administration officers.
“Now is the time to make the cloud real, to provide a real solution with working systems that will help DILA meet the growing needs of its citizens,” said Jerome Vercaemer, managing director of Accenture’s Health & Public Service group in France. “Cloud computing is not a theory. It is a reality that will help streamline operations and help pool government resources.”
The G-cloud will be fully operational by March 2012, he said.
“We are excited by the transition to the cloud. We want to take advantage of all the benefits in terms of cost control, agility and reactivity to better meet new needs,” said Jean-Francois Imokrane, chief information officer of DILA.
Accenture will be supported by three subcontractors, Cisco UCS, NetApp and VMware.