The release next month of the long-awaited Cloud Computing national strategy from the Cabinet Office will finally clear up the fate of the G-Cloud.
Originally planned as the archetypal ‘New Labour’ big-ticket, over-arching national programme, it’s widely speculated that the revised version will focus more on localised, smaller projects - G-Clouds rather then G-Cloud - and have a heavy emphasis on virtualisation and data centre consolidation, a clear private Cloud bent that will infuriate many who argue that the public Cloud approach is where the real cost-arbitrage lies .
Whatever the down and dirty detail turns out to be, one of the original architects of the G-Cloud programme remains confident that the delays have been worthwhile. Martin Bellamy, now Director of Change and ICT at the Ministry of Justice, says:
“The vision remains intact and there is increasing progress on delivery. I have stayed involved as a member of the G-Cloud delivery board. As a Crown Representative appointed by the Cabinet Office I am looking after a number of the large Cloud providers. ”
Bellamy argues that that basic thrust of the G-Cloud initiative will mirror that of private sector efforts:
“The things we’re looking to get out of the Cloud are the same things as everyone else is: price transparency, business adaptability, global reach. A big part of it is commoditisation - we want to use ICT as it is and not have to reinvent the wheel every time we get a business need. ”
This is the c-for-commoditisation argument, not a particular common meme in the public sector where it’s more likely to be c-for-custom built:
“In government terms our starting point is around the commodity element of the Cloud. We want it to be more easy to exploit commodity ICT services, to buy them as we need them, to flex up and down and to do things once and then share across communities. We need to get that mantra of reuse in place as a fundamental concept of the Cloud. But we do have a culture in place with thousands of people who have grown up being used to creating a unique solution top to bottom for every problem. ”
But that’s not going to be as simple as it sounds, he admits:
“Common commodity solutions that can be shared sounds like an easy idea, but the complexity with it is how you get that sharing to happen. Every government department has unique data in unique formats and different technical architectures. So how do you get people to want to share in a context where everything is a bit different. ”
But he adds:
“The challenge is addressable. There are applications that we can use out of the box. If you look at my day job [at the Ministry of Justice], we deal with 86,000 people in prisons, all of whom have electronic records. At first sight what we do seems unique, but if you go a level down then what are the components in that? Collecting data, secure validation and so on – how many of those processes are reusable elsewhere? The answer is ‘quite a lot’. ”
Getting that message across to a public sector used to a certain way of working will be no mean feat. Bellamy admits:
“It is about a culture shift from custom-built to commodity and there is a lot to do. But this is a good time to make the shift, in a period where government needs to reduce costs so much there has never been a better time especially when the cost reductions are not just about the provision, but also the overall delivery of public services. ”
Ultimately, he suggests, it’s about a common sense approach:
“If we need to get from here to Edinburgh, we’d look at timetable for trains or planes. We wouldn’t start building new roads or consulting with manufacturers to see who does the best price for iron ore. ”
So fair enough, that’s the buy side; but what about the sales side. A regularly voiced concern is that the same big vendors who have dominated the ‘traditional’ ICT landscape in government will simply step up to the Cloud mark and continue their dominance of the public sector, despite the government’s commitment to greater SME inclusion in the tendering process. Bellamy says:
"In terms of supplier engagement, we need to encourage Cloud providers to work with government. Too many suppliers have put ‘dealing with government’ into the ‘too difficult’ box. When the delivery strategy is published in October, it will address cultural and procurement challenges. ”
Hinting that a 'Cloud First' mandate may be introduced into procurement (as is the case in the US), Bellamy adds:
“Government ICT procurements have taken about two years to do, then we signed up for ten year contracts at the end of them. We want to get to the stage where the market is much more dynamic so that we can buy services with shorter durations and commitment and where we can switch to a better service provider if one comes along. This will also help to develop the market. ”
So how quickly will all this kick in? Cloud Computing has the potential to transform entirely the way the public sector consumes ICT and delivers public services. But just this week the UK government was criticised by Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff for being “way behind” in its adoption of the Cloud. Bellamy’s mantra seems to remain one of steady progress rather than radical revolution. He says:
“Over time Cloud Computing will become widespread across government. The Digital by Default policy is different to previous policies as it states that public services should be defined for digital delivery as a first priority. At the same time we do need to recognise that ICT in government has grown up over 20 or 30 years – there are probably applications in some data centres that are 40 years old! The ICT landscape has grown up over so many decades that it will take some time to refresh it completely. ”
In the end it’s likely to come back to the austerity regime and the needs to make cuts in budgets:
“Savings are a pretty unifying objective. I am expecting we will be able to demonstrate that moving to the Cloud model will save substantial amounts of money. The bigger we can show the savings, the faster we will drive the adoption. ”
tags for G-Cloud's coming, but culture change is needed
