JERUSALEM, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Israel signed Tuesday a 100-million-new-shekel agreement (about 27 million U.S. dollars) with the U.S. tech giant Microsoft Corporation, which will enable the supply of desktop services, software and servers to government offices for four years starting in 2019.
The agreement, signed by the Government Procurement Administration of Israel's Ministry of Finance, comes after a dispute between the sides last August about the agreement renewal.
Microsoft demanded that the method of licensing the contents be changed from ownership to rental, which would cost the government a large outcome, and the negotiations were halted.
In the form of rental, there was a concern that government rights for use of Microsoft services would be revoked. The Israeli government has already paid hundreds of millions of shekels for these rights.
Microsoft also requested to switch to cloud service, as opposed to the service provided to date, using "On Premise" method - a local installation in which the servers are in government hands.
The concern was that using cloud service would expose the government's information, damaging the confidentiality of materials, such as data on civilians and sensitive documents.
The new four-year agreement ensures that the service licensing system will remain in the form of license ownership, and that the provision of service remains in the form of On Premise rather than cloud-based.
The agreement will prevent an increase in government spending on Microsoft services.
