The Province of Buenos Aires opened a discussion with the national Government about the use of cloud computing services from Amazon and Google to store and process public information. Sandra D'Agostino, Buenos Aires undersecretary of Digital Government, contrasted that strategy with the infrastructure developed by the provincial administration itself. Her main argument is that modernizing the State does not require transferring to a private provider the ability to decide where the data is kept or how the technology is managed.
D'Agostino clarified that the provincial position does not imply rejecting Amazon, Google, or Microsoft, companies with which the Buenos Aires administration also works. The difference, she explained, appears when all the data and technology are concentrated in a single private cloud. In that scenario, the so-called vendor lock-in arises: a technological and operational dependency that makes it difficult to change provider and can transfer a legal conflict to another jurisdiction, such as Brazil.
The warning takes on another dimension due to the nature of the state information. The Province processes administrative documentation and systems related to health, labor, traffic, and other public services. D'Agostino stated that the State must guarantee integrity, confidentiality, and security, and expressed doubts about the location where data from national agencies such as Renaper is stored. That reference was made as a concern of the official, not as a verified location.
The Buenos Aires model relies on the Centro de Procesamiento de Datos inaugurated in 2024 within the grounds of Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas, in Gonnet. The facility provides services to 52 IT areas of different agencies and also offers capacity to municipalities. It houses systems of IOMA, Historia Clínica Digital, traffic fines, the Ministry of Labor, and GDEBA, the provincial document management platform.
The official pointed out that a state cloud does not prevent hiring private capacity for specific intensive processing needs. According to her proposal, that use must be temporary and should not alter strategic control over information. She also questioned that the Nation resorts to external providers when it has public infrastructure through ARSAT and demanded greater transparency regarding technological projects and the agreements in force with companies.
The debate is projected onto artificial intelligence. Since 2024, Buenos Aires has been working on tools and criteria that it defines as Inteligencia Artificial Soberana, a capability that D'Agostino considers inseparable from mastery over data. The controversy leaves two concrete questions open for the national administration: where public information contracted in the cloud remains and what conditions ensure that the State retains the possibility of choosing provider, technology, and jurisdiction.
