The digital innovation ministry said on Monday that Italy will adopt a proposal provided by a consortium that includes Telecom Italia (TIM) (TLIT.MI) as a blueprint in the national cloud tender it aims to conduct in the first weeks of 2022.
The infrastructure, dubbed the National Strategic Hub, is part of the government’s plan to speed up digital transformation while also ensuring national data security. Rome set aside 900 million euros ($1.04 billion) for the project in its national Recovery Plan, which was delivered to Brussels in April.
The ministry stated that it had received three proposals for the national cloud and that the one prepared by the TIM-led consortium – which includes state lender CDP, defense group Leonardo (LDOF.MI), and government IT agency Sogei – “fully and satisfactorily reflects the requirements” set by Rome in September.
While others may submit proposals that meet the TIM criteria, consortiums that project is widely regarded as the obvious favorite to win the tender. That group also has the option of matching any better alternative proposal that may be presented.
The other two bids came from Almaviva, an Italian IT company, and Aruba, a cloud provider, as well as a consortium that included Engineering, an Italian software company, and Fastweb, a Swisscom branch (SCMN.S).
