Digital continuity for government services gets a head start in Estonia with Microsoft Azure

Microsoft has published a new post about the company’s partnership with the Estonian Government in digitalizing the country’s systems, the latest effort of which involves building “digital resilience.”

In recent years, Estonia has risen to become the hub of innovation not just in Europe but the world over, with new transformative ideas being embraced readily and thoughtfully to drive positive changes away from legacy processes, into the future. The country especially has been at the forefront of digitalizing governmental procedures, with projects like e-Residency and digital “data embassy”.

The sensitive and important nature of the information involved in these projects, should they come to fruition, means data and digital services must be able to withstand interferences – the concept behind “digital resilience,” also referred to as “digital continuity.” This area is where Microsoft is working with the Estonian government on with its Azure cloud services. Using the cloud, data like digital land ownership records can be migrated to the cloud in case of disruptions. Microsoft has also provided a Summary Report detailing their findings.

Of course, there are still many technical and policy issues to consider before such a system can be implemented; nevertheless, it is an important part of the digitalization process, and hints at a bright future for not just Estonians, but countries the world over, as we fully enter the digital age.