MeitY invites applications for empanelment of cloud service providers

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has invited applications for the empanelment of new cloud service providers (CSPs) with the ministry. 

CSPs that are not registered with MeitY yet, or empanelled companies that want to add new data centres and services, can apply, according to a statement.

The development comes days after the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and NASSCOM wrote to the government, opposing the creation of a regulatory body for CSPs by the Telecom and Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). They said that the CSPs were covered under existing legal framework and did not need a separate regulatory body, as was first proposed by TRAI in October 2019. 

As part of the empanelment application, MeitY will recognise three cloud deployment models -- public cloud, virtual private cloud and government community cloud. It will also identify cloud service models, including infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS).

CSPs that apply will be subject to an audit by the Standardised Testing and Quality Certification Directorate, a MeitY department, to assess compliance. Post empanelment, the companies will be listed on the government of India cloud portal or MeghRaj webpage. 

To ensure compliance with security requirements, MeitY conducted two such empanelment rounds in 2016 and 2017.

As of August 2019, 13 CSPs were empanelled with the MeitY, including Amazon Internet Services, IBM India, Microsoft Corporation India, Net Magic IT Services and Tata Communications.