Here is how the Mef torpedoes Fincantieri and Poligrafico on the Cloud for the PA
The government is aiming for a public-private partnership to avoid the risk of the US Cloud Act and with the moral suasion conducted by the Mef (according to Repubblica and Fatto Quotidiano) it induces Poligrafico and Fincantieri to withdraw. Facts, names, numbers and reconstructions
The match for the National Strategic Pole (PSN), destined to host the PA cloud, is getting hot.
On 7 September, the Minister for Digital Transition, Vittorio Colao, confirmed that there will not be a competition on the PSN but a public-private partnership.
Between the National Strategic Pole and the migration of the entire Public Administration to the cloud, the government has allocated 1.9 billion euros under the Pnrr.
At the moment the most accredited consortium to build and manage the cloud infrastructure is the one formed by Cdp and Tim with Leonardo and Sogei.
As summarized today by the Daily News "the government has decided to launch a tender, to accept proposals, but behind the scenes it does everything to make only one consortium prevail: the one formed by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti in line with Tim and with the participation of Sogei , in huose del Tesoro, and Leonardo, the former Finmeccanica ”.
The rumors of the newspaper Repubblica are therefore confirmed, which last week wrote : "The other two consortiums, Fincantieri-Amazon and Poligrafico-Fastweb could be wrecked because it is rumored that the Mef is trying to discourage other public companies from competing with the squadron in which militant Cdp, Tim, Sogei and Leonardo ".
“So the Treasury has decided which companies directly or indirectly controlled by the State can apply for the Public Administration Cloud”, Gianluca Zappa commented on Start .
A selection that makes both Fastweb and the Italia Cloud Consortium mutter. The latter includes 6 Italian companies (Seeweb, ETH, Netalia, Infordata, Sourcesense, Babyloncloud) and at the beginning of August it presented its expression of interest in the Psn project but without foreign partners.
All the details.
THE CHOICE OF PRIVATE PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP
On 7 September, the Minister of Innovation Colao specifically mentioned a tender in Ppp for the national cloud.
“In summary it works like this: – explains the Fatto Quotidiano – to participate, private individuals must ally themselves with a company“ subject to public control, supervision and monitoring ”.
A PUBLIC CONTROLLED PSN
Once established, the Pole will be under public control – this is the minister's wish – also because the structure will initially have the Public Administration as its main client.
But the state will not have 100 percent of it "because – added Colao – I do not want to lose the contribution of external private subjects".
ALLIANCES OF THE ITALIAN PARTICIPATES WITH THE BIG TECH USA
And until May, the major Italian companies had chosen to ally themselves with the US giants of the cloud market.
In May, the Tim-Google tandem was preparing to compete with Leonardo-Microsoft and Fincantieri-Amazon for the tender announced by Minister Colao for the management of the National Strategic Pole.
However, now American companies "must remain one step behind but not excluded", Riccardo Luna stated in the Repubblica newspaper at the end of July.
DUE TO THE SPECTRUM OF CLOUD ACT
Also on 7 September, the minister for technological innovation specified that the project "is not open to non-EU countries, such as China".
However, the government's fears aren't just about Chinese companies. The executive is also cautious against a too predominant role of the American giants due to the Cloud Act. In fact, the "Cloud Act" has been in force in the United States since 2018. The latter can allow justice or American intelligence services to access in some cases to data hosted outside the United States.
"Let's see what comes as a proposal, but there is a certain propensity to keep control by the state, perhaps in a flexible form" specified Minister Colao.
THE BEHIND THE GOVERNMENT
"The government, however, has gone even further, becoming the player and arbiter of the game" highlighted Il Fatto Quotidiano .
"We expect a proposal to arrive and if we like it it will be evaluated by a series of subjects, then we will be able to publish it anyway – explained Colao – the choice criterion will not be who is the shareholder but who has the skills to do so". But it went the other way around ”remarks the Fact .
"THE INVITATION" OF THE MEF TO THE POLYGRAPHIC
“A preference that is expressed, when things get complicated, also in the invitation not to participate sent by the short routes to potential rivals. In recent days, for example, a call sent directly from the cabinet of the Minister of Economy Daniele Franco reached the Poligrafico dello Stato, which was ready to participate together with Fastweb. The content, broadly speaking, was this: you have to take off ”.
“The State Mint – controlled by the Treasury – was very ready to participate in a consortium with Fastweb. Its shareholder made it known that it was not the case, ”reported Il Fatto .
THE PROPOSAL IN TWO HYPOTHESES
"Il Poligrafico proposed an investment in three data centers for a cost of 700 million or 450 million with two data centers and the enhancement of the safest of the existing ones" reports Il Fatto.
THE GREEN DATA CENTER IN FOGGIA AT THE CENTER
As stated in the 2020 sustainability report of the State Polygraph , "among the activities implemented in the last year, the operational launch of the Green Data Center at the Foggia plant is particularly significant, the last step in the program implemented by the Poligrafico to ensure business continuity and disaster recovery of the digital services provided. A technological infrastructure was thus completed consisting of three latest generation data centers distributed throughout the country and included by the Agency for Digital Italy in the group of technological sites candidates for the establishment of the National Strategic Pole, the public infrastructure intended to host the essential digital services of the Public Administration ".
Therefore the State Mint had deployed its data centers in the proposal with the telephone operator Fastweb.
SOGEI PARADE
"At first, Sogei was expected to participate, then parade in favor of the other maxi-consortium dear to the Ministry of Economy" writes Il Fatto .
THE REACTION OF FASTWEB
Fastweb did not like the moral suasion conducted by the Treasury.
"There is a strong risk of judicial aftermath: the company would in fact have asked to have written confirmation, and not just" shortly ", of the reason why the public partner pulled out," reported the newspaper.
ALSO OUTSIDE FINCANTIERI
“Fincantieri also had to parade, especially since it is controlled by the CDP” reports Il Fatto . We recall that in view of the tender for the national strategic hub Fincantieri – of which the Mef holds 71% of the capital through Cdp – it had entered into commercial agreements and partnerships with Aws and Almaviva .
THE ROLE OF THE MEF
So the Mef is playing an active role in the match of the National Strategic Pole "by deciding which public subsidiary can compete and which not".
THE POSITION OF THE ITALIA CLOUD CONSORTIUM
And this political choice has not found appreciation even in the newly formed Consorzio Italia Cloud .
"Our Consorzio Italia Cloud is ready to present its proposal, but we are waiting for Minister Colao to indicate the technical lines necessary to participate in the selection, lines that must be indicated by the National Agency for Cybersecurity, and that is why we have expressed our expression of interest to Minister Colao in good time ”, declared President Zunino the day after Colao's presentation.
At the beginning of August, the Italia Cloud Consortium had in fact presented its own expression of interest in the PSN project which followed the one presented last July 15 by the Italian tandem Almaviva, a group active in digital solutions, and Aruba, a cloud provider company and data center.
THE LEONARDO-TIM-CDP-SOGEI ROPE
It seems that the only consortium to be taken into consideration will be that of Tim and Cdp with Leonardo and, perhaps, Sogei.
"We are intensely involved on the issue of cybersecurity and cloud security – announced a few months ago the CEO of Leonardo, Alessandro Profumo – We are talking on several fronts both with the national telecommunications operator and with Cdp and we are evaluating how to cooperate. on this front ".
So the defense and aerospace giant could play a double role, not only in the PA Cloud but also in the Defense cloud.
The Defense multi-year programmatic document (DPP) for the three-year period 2021-2023 in fact provides for the launch of new inter-force programs and among these the acquisition of capacity for data sharing based on the concept of Defense Cloud. In this regard, 90.7 million euros are foreseen over fifteen years.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/ecco-come-il-mef-silura-fincantieri-e-poligrafico-sul-cloud-per-la-pa/ on Thu, 16 Sep 2021 12:13:00 +0000.