John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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418. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the proportion of her Department’s IT data stored in the cloud; the proportion of the data held by all agencies and subsidiaries of her Department in the cloud; if this represents an improvement; if so, the development that has been made towards cloud storage since 2019 to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51193/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The proportion of my Department’s data held at present on commercial cloud is estimated at approximately 2%. The move to cloud computing has the potential to offer improvements in terms of improved security, reliability, increased access and a reduced carbon footprint amongst others. The amount of my Department’s data stored in the cloud has increased since 2019 and will shortly increase further.

My Department is currently migrating many of its services to Microsoft 365. Microsoft 365 is a range of cloud based subscription services, which includes the latest office productivity applications and other security and device management products. My Department’s adoption of Microsoft 365 is in line with the Government policy on cloud computing.

In October 2019 the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform issued a cloud computing advice note. The aim of this note is to provide high-level guidance to assist departments and public sector bodies in making decisions in relation to the adoption of cloud services.Government policy is that department’s should adopt a proactive and progressive approach towards cloud computing. Government systems should be developed to exploit the opportunities presented by cloud deployment, where possible, and all existing systems will be reviewed for cloud capability.The Office of Government Procurement guidance note on cloud services provides complementary help in the form of guidance on the mechanisms for procuring cloud solutions.

More information on the Departments Cloud Computing Advice Note can be found on www.gov.ie. The information in respect of state bodies, within the scope of the Deputy’s question, is not held by my Department. Contact details for these bodies are set out in the attached document, should the Deputy wish to contact the aegis bodies directly with her query.