Recent decades, information and communication technologies (ICT) have been holding strong positions, running through everyday life of the society and touching virtually all aspects of economic and social spheres.   

Developed and many developing countries, while recognizing an importance of informatization and ICT development for their long-term economic growth, start developing intensively the ICT sector as one of the key areas of public policy. Like other countries, Kazakhstan is developing under conditions of an information society, which is characterized by rapid changes, mobility of business and competition in Internet. This article discusses international approaches to ICT development, analyzes the present state of ICT in the country, and challenges that Kazakhstan is facing in automation of public agencies’ activities. A new model for informatization of the public agencies, including IT outsourcing and cloud computing, is presented with the aim to overcome the challenges.