Switzerland’s federal government has published a tender worth up to CHF 7 billion ($8.5bn) to build a new, mixed public and private cloud system.

Named the Swiss Government Cloud (SGC), the project aims to upgrade an existing public cloud infrastructure that the federal government states is reaching the end of its lifecycle.

DCD has approached the federal government for comment.

“In the coming weeks, all relevant IT players in Switzerland and neighboring countries will probably deal intensively with the 1,117-page tender,” said the head of the Institute for Public Sector Transformation and a lecturer on digital sustainability at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, Matthias Stürmer, in a LinkedIn statement. Stürmer welcomed the tender’s publication and its focus on enhancing Switzerland’s digital sovereignty. “Now we are curious to see whether the present tender achieves all these goals or not.”

The SGC will comprise three tiers, according to the tender document published by the Federal Office for IT and Telecommunications (BIT). The first tier will pertain to public cloud services. The second and third will cover enhanced data governance in the public cloud and private, on-premises cloud, respectively.

The tender is split into five awards: four covering the first and second public cloud layers worth a maximum of CHF 2 billion ($2.4bn) for each tier, and one for the private cloud component with a ceiling of CHF 3 billion ($3.6bn). These costs do not include implementation outlays, which the Swiss government estimates will reach CHF 319.4 million ($389m). Bidders will be assessed during a 60-day prequalification phase before they are permitted to apply for the contracts, with individual tenders expected to be awarded in summer 2027.

Splitting the construction process and contracts to build the SGC will enhance Switzerland’s digital sovereignty, reported ICTjournal. This latest round of procurement to upgrade the federal government’s public cloud follows criticism that it awarded contracts in 2022 to foreign providers such as Microsoft, IBM, and Alibaba – a position that was changed two years later with new regulations specifying preference for open-source software-based platforms.

Learn more about the data center market in Switzerland and the wider DACH region, and meet with other executives and experts at the DCN Zurich event later this year.