Abu Dhabi is looking for bidders for a government cloud project.

First reported by Arabian Gulf Business Insight, the Abu Dhabi government has issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the development of a single multi-cloud system that will serve more than 40 government entities.

abu dhabi
Abu Dhabi is heading for the cloud

The government is looking to consolidate digital infrastructure and cloud environments across the various government entities into a "centralized hybrid multi-cloud setup" known as ADGOV Cloud, according to the tender.

The description goes on to add: "ADGOV Cloud will consist of a unified multi-cloud tenant design spanning platforms such as and not limited to Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), and Amazon Web Services (AWS), integrated with the Unified Data Center (UDC) a private government cloud hosted in a third-party data center."

Bids for the project opened on December 24 and will close on February 3. In addition to the Unified Data Center tender, the government has put out a "Cloud Migration Office" tender to handle the migration project.

Mahesh Jaishankar, senior adviser at the consultancy Arthur D Little, told AGBI this was “a very significant step” and would create “a more flexible, secure, and efficient IT infrastructure.”

Jaishankar added: “It would also create the need for more skilled IT capabilities and resources across the agencies.”

Abu Dhabi is home to data centers operated by the likes of Gulf Data Hub, Core42, Etisalat, Equinix, Du, and Khazna Data Centers. Microsoft and Oracle have cloud regions in Abu Dhabi, and AWS has a region in the UAE.