The national cloud, “MeghRaj,” was launched by Kapil Sibal, union minister of communication and information technology on Tuesday. The cloud is being implemented by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).  

To avail the maximum benefits of cloud computing, the Government of India has launched the initiative, “GI Cloud,” which was renamed as “MeghRaj,” mentioned a press release issued by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY).

The project aims to deliver e-services in a faster manner, while optimally utilizing ICT opportunities. It will also ensure the development and deployment of various eGovernance applications. The architecture of MeghRaj includes a set of discrete cloud computing environments spread across multiple locations, built on both existing and new infrastructure, within a set of rules and guidelines issued by DeitY.

To facilitate the launch, two policy reports, “GI Cloud Strategic Direction Paper’ and ‘GI Cloud Adoption and Implementation Roadmap’ have been prepared by DeitY.

The national cloud will also aid the department to procure ICT services in the OPEX model rather than invest upfront in the CAPEX model. The cloud services that are available include are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) and Storage as a Service (STaaS).

Self service portal, multiple cloud solutions, secured VPN access and multi location cloud are some of the features of the national cloud.