Microsoft Corporation and the government have entered into a strategic partnership for the next five years.
The partnership is made up of a number of key initiatives, including government licensing, licensing for schools, educational programmes and initiatives and the establishment of a Microsoft Innovation Centre in Malta – the first to focus on cloud computing.
The centre will be set up in 2012 with a seed investment of more than €3 million over five years between Microsoft and its partners. Even though there are over 100 Microsoft Innovation Centres, the one in Malta will be the first ever worldwide specialising in cloud computing.
The agreement signed between the government and Microsoft, which will impact government knowledge workers, will bring about a reduction of 12 per cent in annual licensing costs.
The school agreement covers all the licences required for Microsoft Windows operating system and Office software for 28,000 users in state primary and secondary schools, including students, teachers and administration. Through this agreement, the government will save 27 per cent in annual licensing costs.
Communications Minister Austin Gatt said the relationship between Government andMicrosoft established a decade ago was not only built on a commercial premise but above all intended to have spill-over benefits through value added initiatives for the wider society and economy.
MITA chairman Claudio Grech, said that through the Microsoft Innovation Centre, start-ups, software development companies and system integrators, ICT professionals and students will gain access to unprecedented technical expertise and technology facilities. Aside from having access to funding opportunities, users will be able to develop innovative ideas and prototypes into marketable products which they can then launch, market and showcase on a global scale at international technology events.
Adrianna Zammit, country manager at Microsoft Malta, said the IT world was changing and so was government’s utilisation of IT. While agreeing that IT is an enabler for success and that the development of open source, cloud and service-based technologies are all factors that influence how we conduct business, it is those governments and agencies that embrace this change that are set to thrive.