Cloud, why is Crosetto attacking the national strategic hub?
What Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said about the cloud and the national strategic hub, a company owned by Tim, Leonardo, Cdp and Sogei, created with the aim of providing the Public Administration with a secure, efficient and reliable cloud infrastructure, with the Pnrr funds
Defense Minister Guido Crosetto doesn't tell you about the state of the art of the cloud in our country.
“We have to grow. Italy is the fourth country in the world in terms of computing capacity thanks to Eni, Leonardo, etc.. but in the cloud for example we are at large. Here too we need a step forward", highlighted Crosetto, on the occasion of Cybertech Europe 2023.
A vision "had existed with the national strategic hub, but some choices are disregarded, ideas are born and then die", remarked the head of the Defense Ministry.
The National Strategic Center (Psn) is the infrastructure that the newco of the same name owned by Tim, Leonardo, Cdp and Sogei, which was awarded a public partnership, has undertaken to create with the aim of providing the Public Administration with an infrastructure secure, efficient and reliable cloud, with Pnrr funds. When fully operational, 75% of the data of the Italian administrations should migrate to the cloud by 2026. The first milestone – the one envisaged to comply with the required obligations of the EU on the Pnrr funds – provides for the migration of the first 100 administrations by September 2024, recalled recently Il Sole 24 Ore .
The main services offered by the PSN to PAs are housing and hosting, private cloud services, services with cloud service providers (the American Oracle, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure) and professional services.
But what exactly was Minister Crosetto referring to with the statement of "some unfulfilled choices" regarding the national strategic hub?
All the details.
THE STRATEGY FOR CYBERSECURITY
New rules and more investments from the State are needed for the cybersecurity sector. This is the recipe indicated by the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto, on the occasion of Cybertech Europe 2023.
“There is no such thing as total security in the cyber world, there is acceptable security, institutions must always choose the best, without looking anyone in the face”. As for the search for skills, he added, “this is not the time to choose the most recommended friend. Competence must be formed in the State and in the institutions”, in the sense of having “the ability to find the best”. Cybersecurity "that comes later is not needed, what is needed is what is an integrated part of the product, by design". This new world requires "changing the rules, one of the tasks we have is this".
Defense will never be able to have "a hacker, an AI expert on the market, because public employment is born the other way around, the higher salary comes when you are older. But the State must deal with the need to have these professionals." The State must be "capable of identifying the necessary tools and knowledge in the private sector".
And then again on the question of security: “There is no such thing as total security in the cyber world, there is acceptable security and it is always a chase. And in this pursuit, the duty that the State has, that the institutions have, is to always choose the best, without looking at anyone, without pre-established positions, being free to choose only the best", stated Crosetto.
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE CLOUD WITH THE NATIONAL STRATEGIC POLE
Also for these reasons, according to Minister Crosetto, “we must grow. Italy is the fourth country in the world in terms of computing capacity thanks to Eni, Leonardo, etc.. but in the cloud for example we are at large. Here too we need a step forward."
A vision "had existed with the national strategic hub, but some choices are disregarded, ideas are born and then die" commented Crosetto.
Therefore, according to the head of Defense, it is necessary to "stimulate historic partners to innovate more and more, knowing that the State and Defense are aware of how fundamental this sector is and therefore we have the intention and will to invest more and more" thinking about “what he must do in politics: plant trees whose shade he will not enjoy”.
WHERE IS THE PSN?
From the current zero to 100 administrations on the National Strategic Pole there is just over a year.
“In particular, it will be necessary to complete the migration of 30 administrations by September 2023 to reach 100 by September 2024 and 280 by the final milestone of June 2026,” specified Agendadigitale .
The infrastructure is based on four national data centers (two in Lazio and two in Lombardy), managed directly by the Psn company, which have already been certified according to the highest standards of security, environmental sustainability and energy efficiency. Specifically, Leonardo, through the SOC in Chieti and the cybersecurity center in Genoa, guarantees continuous monitoring of the infrastructure against threats and cyber attacks.
"I'm confident. Even if it is clear that we must be fast and effective in the implementation component, net of any remodulations at European level that could favor the achievement of the milestones", pointed out Emanuele Iannetti, who has been at the helm of the National Strategic Center since October 2022, to Il Sole 24 Ore last July.
«We started recently, but the results are good and I have no worries. Neither for the achievement of the milestones (in addition to the September 2024 deadline there is also the June 2026 deadline which provides for the passage of 280 public administrations, ed. ), nor for the actual spending of the 900 million made available by the Pnrr", he concluded Iannetti.
RELIANCE ON FOREIGN SERVICE PROVIDERS
As we said at the beginning, the national strategic hub proposed by the Tim-Cdp-Leonardo-Sogei consortium is based on agreements with some of the main Cloud Service Providers [Google (Tim's partner), Microsoft and Oracle].
BEWARE OF THE CLOUD ACT
Recently, another member of the Meloni government, the undersecretary of the Presidency of the Council with responsibility for Technological Innovation, Alessio Butti, has raised fears about the implications of the US Cloud Act in relation to the data hosted in the four data centers of the PSN.
The latter may allow US justice or intelligence services to access data hosted outside the United States in some cases. The cloud mega-bigs (Google, Oracle and Microsoft) are not in fact cut off from the national strategic hub.
According to the undersecretary, "critical issues remain open regarding the threat to national digital sovereignty represented by the American Cloud Act, which would also exercise its jurisdiction on Italian territory".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/cloud-perche-crosetto-sferza-il-polo-strategico-nazionale/ on Thu, 05 Oct 2023 06:13:19 +0000.