Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, said yesterday the government was one of the most innovative in Europe when it came to IT-driven services.
Mr Courtois was speaking alongside IT Minister Austin Gatt as they signed a €17 million strategic partnership agreement at the ministry in Valletta. The agreement, which was first announced last July, is the third such deal between the government and Microsoft.
Central to the agreement is the setting up by Microsoft of an innovation centre for cloud computing in Malta next year. The agreement, which will stretch to 2016, will also enable teachers and students to purchase Microsoft software packages at a heavily discounted price.
Cloud computing is a system whereby software and services are accessed through a shared network. In other words, rather than software being hosted on your PC at home, for instance, it can be accessed online, in the “cloud”.
The innovation centre will be the first of its kind in the world. It will offer training on the use of cloud computing, access to computing facilities and assistance in developing cloud computing software for launch in the local market and overseas. The centre is expected to open in the last quarter of 2012.
Although there were several examples of large countries embracing cloud computing, Mr Courtois said, there weren’t many such examples among smaller countries. Malta, he continued, could be a role model in the area.
Dr Gatt said cloud computing made certain services and software more accessible to small businesses. Asked whether the partnership conflicted with the government’s Open Source Vision White Paper, Dr Gatt argued there was no incompatibility between the two. The government, he said, was committed to focusing on open standards but it was then up to individual developers and users to decide on what platforms they wished to use. There was no intention to standardise IT platforms across government departments, he noted.
The White Paper, published last year, sought to explore “further opportunities associated with the accelerated adoption of cost-effective and non-disruptive open source software within government.” It spoke of a lack of awareness of open source software, which is basically non-copyrighted software, within the public administration and education sectors and observed that popular misconceptions of such software limited the potential for its increased adoption.
Asked about the possibility of Microsoft moving its local offices to SmartCity, Adrianna Zammit, Microsoft country manager for Malta, said the company was evaluating a number of locations, including SmartCity, but no decision had been made yet.
The strategic partnership agreement provides for an 86 per cent discount on an upgrade to Windows 7 professional and Office Professional 2010 for students and teachers. Educational institutions will also be given access to Live@Edu, a Microsoft-driven cloud service that allows users to store their documents, photos and files on the cloud.