Public Clouds Bund

The 'Public Clouds Bund' project makes cloud services available centrally to the Federal Administration. Cloud governance and the cloud service broker (CSB) as an intermediary support the administrative units so that they can obtain cloud services quickly and according to common criteria.

The Federal Administration's hybrid multi-cloud strategy provides for different cloud services to be made available. ‘Public Clouds Bund’ provides the Federal Administration with the possibility of obtaining public cloud services if required. These services are available to the entire Federal Administration.

Use of public clouds for administrative units

If an administrative unit is considering using public cloud services, it contacts one of the CSBs (see section on Organisation of public cloud use). If public cloud use is permitted for the intended application and its data, the selection of the most suitable public cloud provider takes place following a defined call-off process. The CSB then provides the administrative unit with access to the chosen cloud provider.

The FOITT supports the call-off process of public cloud services as CSB. In this role, it acts as an intermediary between clients and hyperscalers, thus enabling the Federal Administration to use public cloud services in an orderly and efficient manner. The configuration of the public cloud ensures that basic IT protection requirements in the Federal Administration are implemented in accordance with the Cyber Risk Ordinance (CyRO). Ultimately, however, the specialist office, in consultation with the Department, decides how the cloud services should be used based on a protection requirement analysis.

The FOITT advises and supports the requesting units in carrying out the evaluation according to the guidelines provided by the Federal Chancellery. It also supports clients in meeting the requirements for information security and data protection as well as confidentiality obligations and in commissioning the public cloud services.

That way the Federal Administration can obtain and make use of public cloud services from the WTO-20007 award recipients (Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Alibaba, IBM and Oracle).

Organisation of public cloud use

In order to ensure the orderly, secure and efficient use of public cloud services in the Federal Administration, the federal government has organised itself accordingly. Building on the Federal Administration's cloud strategy, tasks relating to public cloud use are shared:

Cloud Governance: The Federal Chancellery's DTI Sector (Digital Transformation and ICT Steering) defines the cloud principles that must be observed when using public and private cloud services and also decides on exceptions if necessary. It provides further tools centrally. The departments and CSBs set out and expand governance rules for their area of responsibility.
Intermediary / Cloud Service Broker (CSB): The cloud service broker supports administrative units in the use of private and public cloud services. It provides advice on selecting the appropriate cloud tier for applications.
The central CSB of the Federal Administration is the FOITT (Federal Office of Information Technology, Systems and Telecommunication). In addition, there may be other CSBs that cover the specific needs of individual federal offices.
Public Cloud Operator: Is responsible for the operational services that extend beyond the technical operation of the cloud services.
As a rule, the relevant administrative unit assumes this task. It can also be assumed by system teams at the IT service providers.