Israel Taps AWS, Google Cloud For $1B State Cloud Infrastructure Project

Consulting firm KPMG won the bid to help set up a Cloud Center of Excellence and establish a government cloud migration strategy.

Israel has selected Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud as the winners of a $1 billion-plus project to deliver a public cloud infrastructure for the country’s government ministries and defense forces.

AWS and Google edged out IBM, Microsoft and Oracle in the bidding for the “Project Nimbus” contract and will develop cloud data center sites within Israel under an initial 4 billion-shekel investment -- the equivalent of $1.22 billion, Reuters reported today, citing an announcement from Israel’s finance ministry. The cloud sites will keep the government and military data within Israel’s borders to adhere to strict data security regulations, the report said.

Israel’s Project Nimbus is a multi-year cloud services project that includes four phases and four tenders. AWS and Google won the cloud infrastructure construction contract. Consulting firm KPMG won the bid to help set up a Cloud Center of Excellence and establish a government cloud migration strategy, beating Ernst & Young, McKinsey and HPE, according to Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper.

Small and medium-sized Israeli companies will be selected through another bidding process to help with migrating and integrating the Israeli government systems to the cloud and developing cloud environment systems, according to Reuters. A fourth tender will cover cloud control and optimization.

The Israeli government expects its move to a local cloud will generate increased foreign investment in Israel’s infrastructure and result in a boon for the local tech industry, Haaretz reported.

Google Cloud declined comment, and AWS did not immediately respond to a CRN inquiry.

AWS is setting up three server farms in Israel as part of a local partnership with Israel’s Compass-Azrieli group, while Google is negotiating with existing data center operators, according to Haaretz.