According to the statement, public sector agencies must “consider and fully evaluate potential cloud solutions first – before they consider any other option”. Government agencies will need to prove that they are saving costs if they choose to go with an on-premise model.
“G-Cloud brings a step change in the way government buys IT. It’s quicker, cheaper and more competitive, open to a wider range of companies, including a majority of SMEs, and offers more choice and innovation,” said Maude.
“Many government departments already use G-Cloud, but IT costs are still too high. One way we can reduce them is to accelerate the adoption of Cloud across the public sector to maximise its benefits. The Cloud First policy will embed the skills a modern civil service needs to meet the demands of 21st-century digital government and help us get ahead in the global race.”
Procurement will be done with the help of the UK government’s CloudStore — a consolidated platform for the public sector in the country. It consists of a database of 7,000 services offered by vendors — split into IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and “other services” categories — that government agencies can match their requirements with.
It is in line with the UK Government’s move to commoditise IT services rather than customise extensively according to each agency’s needs, and it offers ‘Pan Government Accreditation’ to services to help the evaluation process on part of each agency.
A new supplier framework was added to the CloudStore on the same day as the announcement, bringing the number of suppliers to 708 companies, 80 per cent of which are small/medium enterprises.
Director of IT at the Home Office, Denise McDonagh, revealed that since the launch of CloudStore about a year ago, over 1,000 invoices have been processed, amounting to sales worth £18.2 million (US$28.3 million).
McDonagh, who is also the G-Cloud Programme Director for the UK, added: “Off-the-shelf products from the Cloud can be up to 30 per cent of the cost of bespoke solutions. Today’s launch of an expanded G-Cloud framework, with more companies offering an even greater range of products and services, will only enhance the cost and innovation benefits of a more competitive marketplace.”
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Rahul Joshi
Quelle/Source: futureGov, 07.05.2013
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
