While the UK government is now committed to a Cloud First ICT future, there remains the inconvenient reality that literally billions of pounds of on premise systems are already in place across the public sector – and no-one’s planning to chuck it all away.
One of the main selling points of the Cloud is its ‘pay as you go’ pricing model that replaces the licence-based approach of traditional software vendors. But while subscribing to a Cloud-based provider will provide budgetary flexibility, it does nothing to address the existing licensing burden for installed systems.
With that in mind, application software giant SAP says it is talking to the Cabinet Office about how to introduce more flexibility into its licensing for the public sector. SAP’s UK managing director Steve Winter said:
“We are getting requests from both local and central government for more subscription-based costing. We are having talks with the Cabinet Office about that. The challenge that we have is that the public sector continues to have a lot of on premise solutions so we’re working with the Cabinet Office to focus on how to help [public sector customers] consume what they have today. We are working with them to provide an on demand capability. ”
The firm is also working with its systems integration partners on this issue, he added:
“For existing customer we’re working with systems integrators that are interested in looking at alternative consumption models. ”
But Winter cautioned that public sector customers need to be certain what it is that they’re looking for – is it full-blown Cloud Computing or some hybrid approach?
“You really need to decide whether you are looking for a subscription model or true on demand. Frankly local and central government are probably not ready for full multi-tenancy. People say that they want everything in the Cloud, but then there are all the security issues associated with that. So are you really asking for on demand or are you asking for a private Cloud? We can work with systems integrators to give them a private Cloud that looks like on demand. ”
The private sector has also struggled to come to terms with licensing as the Cloud model expands into the mainstream. SAP UK User Group Chairman Alan Bowling explained that the software licensing model currently used by SAP makes it difficult for customers to switch from on-premise applications to the Cloud, as they cannot easily swap one licensing agreement for another:
“In times of austerity we have to prioritise licence management. We need simplicity. It has felt as though complexity in licensing has increased. Virtualisation and Cloud Computing have added to this. But as the hybrid [on premise and on demand] approach becomes a reality, licensing could become a nightmare. Licensing concerns could be one reason why people don’t understand how to integrate on demand. ”
tags for Cloud push leads to public sector licensing debate
