Launched in 2011, the UK Governments Cloud Strategy, outlines the vision for government to robustly adopt a public cloud first policy, although recognises that this will not be possible in every case.
“Government cloud is not a single, government owned, entity; it is an ongoing and iterative programme of work which will enable the use of a range of cloud services, and changes in the way we procure and operate ICT, throughout the public sector”, states the strategy.
“By exploiting innovations in cloud computing we will transform the public sector ICT estate into one that is agile, cost effective and environmentally sustainable”, states the strategy.
The strategy details UK public sector ICT as having “high levels of duplication, silos of infrastructure, fragmented and often inappropriate provision and low levels of server utilisation. It is estimated that in some cases, infrastructure utilisation is less than 10%”.
“Simply buying cloud technology will not, in itself, save the most money. The greatest value will be gained by Government changing the way we buy and operate our ICT”.
The strategy identifies a number of potential benefits for UK Government use of cloud services:
- Access to the best industry ICT services and solutions off the shelf so agencies don’t create duplicate services that cannot be shared
- The ability for departments to change service providers easily without lengthy procurement and implementation cycles, and no more lock-in contracts
- Services that are paid for on a usage basis, driven by strong competition on price and quality
- Competitive marketplace
The UK Cloud Strategy is a sub-strategy of the UK Government’s ICT Strategy 2011.
Read the UK Government Cloud Strategy.
Learn about G-Cloud.