Technological leap frogging e-government through cloud computing

Building, operating, maintaining, and updating traditional e-government IT infrastructure require financial resources for up-front infrastructure costs and IT administration expenditures. Due to economic down turn in developed countries and shrinking budgets in developing countries, governments are not in a position to extend an open ended financial support to IT assets and are increasingly looking to cut their IT costs. Recent developments in IT have made it possible to consolidate IT infrastructure in a way that delivers increased flexibility and responsiveness to business needs, of both private sector organizations and public sector agencies, while reducing costs. This change involves a move from IT being provided individually by organizations procuring their own separate IT infrastructure, to a new model known as “cloud computing” in which IT is provided as utility. The cloud computing model can help government agencies to provide highly reliable, innovative services quickly despite resource constraints, by applying innovations developed in the private sector. This paper analyses the potential of cloud computing for implementation of e-government in general and particularly its leaf frogging potential for developing countries. A cloud computing model for e-government in Pakistan will be presented.