KT Cloud Secures Korea's First Public DaaS Contract with Bank of Korea

KT Cloud announced on the 7th that it has signed Korea's first public DaaS contract with the Bank of Korea and will provide cloud-based desktop virtualization (VDI) services. Photo by KT Cloud

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] On the 7th, KT Cloud announced that it has signed Korea's first public Desktop as a Service (DaaS) contract with the Bank of Korea and will provide cloud-based desktop virtualization (VDI) services.

The Bank of Korea is the first institution to adopt public DaaS. Until now, public and financial institutions have handled information and data requiring a higher level of security compared to general companies, and according to related laws, they had to use on-premises VDI. The 'Public DaaS' led by KT Cloud is a cloud service dedicated to public and financial institutions that meets the security standards designated by the government, providing a remote work environment without restrictions on time, place, or device. The industry expects that the adoption of DaaS by the Bank of Korea will accelerate the adoption of DaaS in the public and financial sectors.

KT Cloud's 'Public DaaS' is based on the Tilon virtualization protocol (Tilon D Station 9.0), a solution whose performance and functionality have been verified in the VDI market, and simultaneously offers ▲security ▲cost efficiency ▲management convenience. First, it guarantees strong security through harmful site and traffic blocking, antivirus services, and professional security monitoring services. Additionally, it uniquely provides the 'Network-Isolated Data Transfer Service' as an add-on service, equipped with functions such as file transfer approval, history management, and transfer detection to ensure safe data transmission and control information leakage.

Furthermore, institutions can freely create and delete VDIs according to monthly usage, allowing them to use only what they need, maximizing cost efficiency. Through the administrator portal, client institutions can directly operate tasks such as software installation, operation verification, and change management, or request delegation through the 'Management Service.'

On-premises VDI requires several months of time and cost for design, construction, and deployment, and also requires operation and management afterward, which has been a burden not only for small and medium-sized institutions but also for large institutions. In contrast, 'Public DaaS' reduces the institution's workload and cost burden by eliminating the need for deployment time and cost and providing management services. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety is promoting the adoption of DaaS in public institutions by 2025, and the Financial Supervisory Service has revised electronic financial supervision regulations to encourage cloud utilization.

Oh Jin-seok, Head of IT Planning at the Bank of Korea, said, "We receive internet network-isolated VDI services using KT Cloud's Public DaaS infrastructure," adding, "The DaaS platform is built and operated by the cloud provider, and the Bank of Korea only pays the service usage fee to the cloud provider. After pilot operation, we will consider phased expansion."

With the adoption of Public DaaS, the Bank of Korea can provide employees with a remote work environment that maintains security during remote work while being cost-effective. The Bank of Korea expects that employees will be able to work remotely anytime and anywhere without restrictions on time, place, or device, improving work continuity and efficiency, as well as job satisfaction through flexible work.

Nam Chung-beom, Head of KT Cloud's Cloud Division, stated, "We believe that the adoption of Public DaaS by public and financial institutions, where security and safety are important like the Bank of Korea, will accelerate the growth of the domestic public DaaS market. KT Cloud, which has led the public cloud market, will continue to lead the public DaaS market."