Summary: The Israeli government awarded cloud contracts to AWS (which will supply 70% of the total) and Google Cloud (30%). The Nimbus project will provide cloud services to the country’s public sector and military in four phases – the first of which is building in-country data centres. The next stages will be to formalise the government’s cloud migration policies, implement the migrations, and then control and optimise cloud activity. A tender process is underway to select local partners to work alongside AWS and Google. Microsoft and Oracle also bid for the project and have attempted to challenge the decision (reportedly including a phone conversation between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and PM Benjamin Netanyahu). It will be a blow to Microsoft, which has been a leading supplier to the Israeli government for years and which has still not yet been able to start work on the JEDI contract in the US due to legal challenges from Amazon. The company has been operating in Israel since 1989 and in 1991 set up its first non-US R&D centre in the country, which is now one of three main strategic global centres. Unlike AWS or Google, both Microsoft and Oracle have officially announced new Israel cloud regions. Microsoft is building a data centre in Modi’in midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv that is due to open within a year. Oracle is said to be partnering with local operator Bynet Data to launch its Israel region, and the chances are Microsoft will also tap Bynet given the collaboration between Azure and Oracle Cloud.
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