Cloud came to the rescue of Indonesia’s immigration services

Government agencies in Indonesia are accelerating their digital transformation by adopting cloud computing to store and secure data, develop public services, and create innovative solutions, speakers shared at a panel discussion titled Advancing the Public Sector with Cloud and AI. 

Speaking at the panel discussion, which was part of AWS Public Sector Day Indonesia held on July 10 in Jakarta, Indonesia’s Ministry of Law and Human Rights Director-General of Immigration, Silmy Karim, said the cloud had become the "saviour" of vital public services that were crippled by the recent ransomware attack on Indonesia's national data centre.  

"When there was an attack that caused immigration inspection and autogate services to go down, I immediately moved the operating system to the AWS cloud. In less than two days, all affected services returned to normal," Silmy said.  

Also speaking on the panel were Ministry of Health Chief of Digital Transformation Office, Setiaji, and PT Pos Chief of Digital Services, Hariadi. The panel was moderated by AWS Indonesia's Government Account Lead, Muhamad Yopan.  

Silmy emphasised that a “quick decision” was taken to move data and operating systems to the cloud because immigration services are vital state services. When the system goes down, national security risks will arise, he added.  

"I believe in my decision and if you ask me what the procurement and administrative process is like, we'll talk later. I can't let the country's security be compromised just because of administrative hurdles," Silmy said.

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Innovating with AI

Setiaji shared that the Ministry of Health has been using the cloud to roll out innovative services using artificial intelligence (AI).  

An example he shared was the processing of X-ray images of the lung using AI. This helps specialists and radiology teams perform faster diagnoses . Currently 30 types of lung diseases can be diagnosed using AI.   

The Ministry of Health is also developing AI-based models for several diseases, like hypertension and diabetes for early detection and treatment. AI helps healthcare workers to determine which cluster of patients should see a doctor immediately so that the disease does not get worse, Setiaji observed.   

"By utilising graphics processing units (GPUs) from AWS, our AI will analyse genomic data and patient treatment data as a reference for determining the right treatment for each patient, so that everyone will get the right medicine for each disease," he added.  

In the future, generative AI (GenAI) will aim to enrich the health consultation feature in SATUSEHAT Mobile to help patients get the information they need about their condition before consulting a doctor.   

Hariadi said that PT Pos utilises AI to improve efficiency in business processes and automate routine tasks that are usually done by humans. In addition, AI also enriches the security features of the organisation's electronic documents through facial recognition and image processing.  

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Overcoming cloud adoption challenges 

Although more Indonesian public sector organisations are using the cloud, there are still challenges and the adoption process is not all smooth sailing.   

Setiaji said the first challenge was people's mindset about the cloud itself. Many public sector employees still do not understand that the cloud is not just storage, but more than that. There is a general lack of understanding that the cloud can help run services, process data, and provide GPUs for AI, he added.    

"This effort to educate the public sector [employees] takes time, and [requires] the active involvement of cloud service providers in the form of training and certification," he said.  

The next challenge is procurement and the location of the cloud infrastructure, as regulations require data on Indonesian residents be located within the country. Government officials are often confused when explaining and proving the cloud's location. What internal auditors imagine is hardware whose physical form is clear, while the cloud is virtual, Setiaji said.   

"This can be overcome by the increasing the number of service providers building their data centres in Indonesia in the last four years, including the three facilities owned by AWS," he added.  

The next challenge, according to the panelists, was convincing stakeholders that the cloud is safe and complies with government regulations. Security is not just about data breaches, but must also contain aspects of integrity, availability and easy access.   

According to Setiaji, one of the advantages of the AWS cloud is the availability of high data security standards which match the needs of the Ministry of Health, which manages sensitive health data.   

Silmy added that references from other government agencies are very useful to convince government leaders to adopt the cloud. When immigration services were paralysed, the first thing he did was ask Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin about what steps were taken to overcome the security breach in the PeduliLindungi app three years ago.  

"I asked his reference about AWS, and he told me not to hesitate and move (the service) immediately. Then I said OK."  

There is also a need to present the facts about the cloud to colleagues and leaders. “Say that the cloud can provide guaranteed autoscaling when passport or visa applications surge in a short period of time compared to on premise data centres. Or that the service provider is willing to maintain the system round the clock,” said Silmy. 

At the end of the discussion, the panellists agreed that the use of cloud can bridge the public's high expectations of secure, easy and reliable government services. On-demand cloud services can help government agencies get the right solutions for their specific needs and challenges.

This article was originally published in Bahasa Indonesia.