Kerala government rethinks on data centre contracts amid privacy woes

Thiruvananthapuram: The state government has extended the existing contracts with Keltron and Sify Technologies for the operation, maintenance and upgradation of the two State Data Centres (SDCs) till this month. Keltron has been maintaining SDC-1 since 2012 and Sify SDC-2 since 2010. According to sources, the chief minister's office is reviewing the moves to grant a fresh contract to Sify Technologies in the wake of concerns being raised over the private firm being given access to the SDCs, which are the central data repository of all vital e-governance applications of the state government.

“A decision on either to grant the contract to Sify or to go for re-tender is still pending. Hence, the existing contracts have been extended till this month,” said government sources. Sources said that apart from the security issues raised by the Opposition parties, the cost quoted by Sify for certain components like enterprise security and enterprise management were higher than the estimates prepared by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing. All these matters were being reviewed by the government.