The Austrian National Info Day was organised by ZVK (PP3) in cooperation with the observer Austrian Association of Cities and Towns. It was held on 9th December 2013 in the town hall of Vienna. The purpose of the event was to inform about the goals and objectives of the SECOVIA project itself as well as to raise awareness, at a national level, on cloud based IT services, resources and infrastructures for public administrations.
At the very beginning some key data as well as goals, objectives and foreseen outputs of the SECOVIA project were presented to the audience by Mag. (FH) Ursula Polessnig from ZVK. Four additional disputants were invited to cover the European, national and local perspective as well as the perspective of a private data processing centre.
Dr. Ronald Sallmann (ZVK) gave a short overview on cloud computing (definition, characteristics, advantages and risks, ect. ) and spoke also about the Austro-European Framework on cloud computing. The focus of the input of DI Peter Reichstädter from the Federal Chancellery of the Republic of Austria (BKA), was the national perspective. He presented the “Austrian Strategy Paper on Cloud Computing”, which is the output of the working group “Digital:Austria”. DI Norbert Weidinger from the City of Vienna explained the strategy on Cloud Computing of the capital city of Austria. Dipl. Ing. (FH) Gerd Sarnitz Managing Director of the Data-Processing-Centre of Cities and Towns in Carinthia (GIZ-K), reported from a Best Practice Example on Cloud Computing in Austria. Common objective of the discussion was the identification of possible questions (problems), that have to be addressed within the ongoing SECOVIA project (ideally at follow-up events).
Participants were provided with information material (slides of all speakers - in German). At the end of the event, participants were asked for a short feedback. The feedback showed that the event in general was very informative, however the participants remarked, that the group of local and regional stakeholders need more detailed (and especially more objective) information how to use cloud services in their own authorities (technical, legal aspects). Therefore it was decided to discuss the topic in the committee for ICT of the Association of Austrian Cities and Towns (AACT) and to organise a further event.
