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Singapore government to boost cloud capabilities of SME tech suppliers
Smaller tech firms in the city state can look forward to a new capability development programme to help them build cloud-native applications
Singapore is looking to bolster the cloud pedigree of small and medium-sized technology providers in the city-state through a state-funded capability development programme.
Announced by Singapore’s minister of communications and information S. Iswaran today, the new GoCloud programme will help small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) suppliers to re-architect traditional monolithic software or build new containerised applications.
Through training courses delivered by service providers to be appointed by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) in 2019, these suppliers can also learn more about building a DevOps culture within their organisations, harnessing automation tools to speed up application delivery and using cloud platforms to scale their business and serve new markets.
In addition, expert coaches will be on hand to guide SME tech suppliers in specific projects to rebuild or turn their applications into cloud-native software within a few months. IMDA said it will fund up to 50% of development costs in eligible projects.
IMDA chief executive Tan Kiat How noted during a media briefing earlier this week that the GoCloud programme, which is expected to benefit some 200 SME tech suppliers, comes at a time when Singapore’s services sector is moving towards Services 4.0, where services are delivered in an anticipatory manner using emerging technologies.
To do so, SME tech suppliers will need to evolve their offerings into cloud-native services that are better suited to meeting the needs of changing market demands.
Bijjala Radhakrishna, CEO of Singapore-based IT service provider Total eBiz Solutions, told ComputerWeekly that his firm started modernising a slew of applications – including a project monitoring system – some 18 months ago. Going cloud-native, he said, has reaped time and cost savings for itself and its customers.
Read more about cloud and DevOps in APAC
- Southeast Asian ride-hailing and delivery juggernaut Grab will adopt Azure as its preferred cloud platform in a five-year agreement with Microsoft to enhance its services through greater use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
- The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group is working with Google to deliver data-driven business insights to institutional banking customers in Australia.
- Large enterprises such as DBS Bank have been shaking up their software development practices to fend off disruption from more nimble rivals.
- Online property search firm PropertyGuru is at ease with microservices, containers and serverless computing, even as it grapples with legacy applications.
The Singapore government has also developed a cloud-native Singapore Government Technology Stack (SGTS), a set of technology building blocks that provides shared software and infrastructure services that agencies can use to build and test new applications quickly.
SGTS comprises three standardised layers – a container-based platform so all agencies can use the same set of tools and programming language, shared middleware such as centralised application programming interface (API) gateways, and a library of commonly used microservices such as payment and authentication.
