Email was the driver for Warwickshire County Council beginning its move into the Cloud as the authority decided the time was right to replace its Lotus Notes. With Exchange out of the picture, alternatives were considered and Cloud options were to the fore.
The council looked at a number of Cloud offerings – both public and private Cloud - including some from Microsoft, Google and IBM as well as Cable and Wireless and Saavis. This assessment of what was available focused thoughts into some firm conclusions.
Tonino Ciuffini, Head of Information Assets, Warwickshire County Council, explains:
“Cloud offerings were only just becoming available. We volunteered to see if we could use Cloud email as an option. We thought all of the offerings could work, but private Cloud was going to be significantly more expensive for email – double that of the public Cloud offerings. It was also the case that none of the private Cloud offerings actually existed at the time and that’s still the position today. ”
So public Cloud it was to be:
“We looked at the public Cloud offerings. We assessed more than just mail as we found that the public Cloud offered documents as well. We built a model of what we wanted. The great thing about the public Cloud offerings was that they were all there, so an immediate benefit was that they were all available within 24 hours and could deliver us IL2 level secure email. ”
As Ciuffini notes, the council is in “financially straitened times” and as such it’s hardly surprising that he notes:
“The major benefit over the status quo was that they were all cheaper. For us, Google offered a significantly lower cost and a very simple model, whereas Microsoft and IBM were still talking about which bits we needed to buy. ”
Savings are there to be had from the public Cloud, although some areas of the organisation need to be exempted for now:
“ We are confident that we can save £250k a year from mail and from Google Docs so we will see savings in the Office arena. We do need to keep Excel for the likes of the accountants, but a lot of people if people could get away with using Cloud office products. We have moved to the pilot stage for IL2 mail and we’ll roll out to 4500 users. ”
But aside from cost implications, there are other clear benefits, argues Ciuffini:
“The key driver has to be reduced costs and we’re very confident we will achieve that. The general Cloud benefits are there – reduced deployment times and costs, reduced management costs and upgrades . And we pay for usage which is reduced if the council needs shrink. ”
He adds:
“Cloud also provides us with increased collaboration options. It’s a bit gimmicky, but it comes with improved joint working and shared information. Google enables us to share with anyone we want to. The Cloud also offers us improved access to flexible working. I had a senior manager at the council say that the Cloud doesn’t do anything for us, so I stopped talking about the technology and talked about flexible working instead. By using Google Docs, our staff can access information from any desktop. ”
Since Warwickshire started its Cloud email work, the official G-Cloud strategy has been published, turning the council into something of a pathfinder. Ciuffini sees the G-Cloud as essentially a positive development as long as everyone understands what it is about:
“What it isn’t about is building a Cloud infrastructure but it is about using private sector Cloud facilities. Why should it still be G-Cloud? There are three reasons. If we do it as G-Cloud, we can buy it together and see the difference in pricing if we come together. At the moment we all go out and tender hundreds of times. If we can get that done once as G-Cloud, we can make huge savings. ”
Security is of course never far from the agenda:
“ In terms of information assurance, we’ve started by saying we have IL2 security, so we won’t put social there and pay records, but to be honest 95% of users are at IL2. We are working with the ICO, not just about security but also about data protection. We do still plan to achieve IL3, via Google or some other Cloud, but I think it will take a long time to get that accreditation. ”
The council also takes an admirably pragmatic stance on the often vexed question of data governance and data transfer :
“We accept that the information from Google is not in the UK, but it is in Europe. We can take that. We accept that we give up some control, but while we see control as important, the increased flexibility and reduced costs make that worthwhile. ”
And while private Cloud email options weren’t there for Warwickshire, Ciuffini sees a definite role for private Cloud provision under the auspices of the G-Cloud:
“ I do genuinely believe that private Cloud providers will play a part in the G-Cloud as there will be a demand for high levels of security. ”
Overall, the Cloud has to date proved a success for Warwickshire and with G-Cloud now a formalised national strategy further ventures seem inevitable. Ciuffini concludes:
“ The challenges include the fact the G-Cloud is not all there, but there is great support from the Cabinet Office. There are great opportunities for how public and private Cloud can be used for benefit. And doing it as part of the G-Cloud means we have the assistance of others. ”
tags for The Practical Cloud: Warwickshire County Council
