What is Project Nimbus?

Project Nimbus is a cloud computing project of the Israeli government and its military. The Israeli Finance Ministry announced April 2021, that the contract is to provide "the government, the defense establishment, and others with an all-encompassing cloud solution." Under the contract, the companies will establish local cloud sites that will "keep information within Israel's borders under strict security guidelines."

Project Nimbus has four planned phases: the first is purchasing and constructing the cloud infrastructure, the second is crafting government policy for moving operations onto the cloud, the third is moving operations to the cloud, and the fourth is implementing and optimizing cloud operations. Under a $1.2 billion contract, technology companies Google (Google Cloud Platform) and Amazon (Amazon Web Services) were selected to provide Israeli government agencies with cloud computing services, including artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The terms Israel set for the project contractually forbid Amazon and Google from halting services due to boycott pressure. The tech companies are also forbidden from denying service to any particular government entities.

Project Nimbus is the Israel government's project and tender process to move all computing from on premise to the cloud for all government entities including the military. The first phase of the $1.2 billion tender process - for the cloud infrastructure - was awarded to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Amazon Web Services (AWS), who have built local data centers to ensure all information will remain within Israel's borders under strict security guidelines.

The second phase will involve engaging technology and services companies to develop policy and the third will be to move operations onto the cloud. The fourth and final phase will be implementing and optimising cloud operations leveraging 1st party and 3rd party services available on GCP and AWS cloud platforms available within Israel. 

The terms of the contract forbid Amazon and Google from halting services due to any boycott pressure, or from denying service to any particular government entity including their military.