The government's strategy for the G-Cloud initiative has been called into question by Socitm – the Society of IT Managers which represents ICT executives in the local government sector.
The G-Cloud first came to attention last summer as part of the Digital Britain report. The intention is put government and citizen-facing services into the Cloud in order to cut costs and transform the delivery of essential public services.
A similar initiative is underway in the US, instigated by the Obama administration, but has run up against objections at local level from federal CIOs. Now it seems this may also be mirrored in the UK as Socitm talks up the “new risks” of the G-Cloud push.
In its IT Trends 2009 report, Socitm noted: “We remain convinced that Cloud Computing, the use of Software as a Service (SaaS) and utility computing, could offer significant savings to public sector organisations. However we need to recognise that use of the Cloud will introduce new risks.”
Among the supposed risks that Socitm cites are uncertainty of service standards, ownership and security of information and ability to control and manage demand. The report concedes that such risks can be managed, but is not enthused by what it perceives as the government's decision to avoid “exploitation of the public Cloud” and go with a private Cloud alternative instead.
“We have misgivings about this about this initiative,” the report said. “Although public sector organisations are urged to ensure all future IT purchases are compatible with the G-Cloud, we do not believe it is likely to become a mainstream service offering, delivering savings within the 3 years stated in the Digital Britain report.”
No decisions taken
But the Government's CIO John Suffolk – and the man ultimately responsible for the G-Cloud – stood his ground over the strategy. “We have made no statements about whether public or private Cloud is most appropriate,” he said. “It's horses for courses. For some things, public Cloud will be the right thing. If you're not talking about citizens data or there are no data protection issues, then it's the right thing to do. But if there are issues about citizen data, then sometimes the world view is that a private Cloud would be better. “
Cutting costs is one of the major drivers for the Cloud focus. “Cash is going to be king” said Suffolk. “It cannot be sustainable that we have hundreds and hundreds of data centres and tens of hundreds of networks. Do we need to own all this? We have hundred of systems doing the same thing. That's not a sustainable model over the next ten years. If I was a chief executive, I'd be saying 'how much control do I need for this utility?'.
“Costs have to come down. Everyone from all parties are saying that cost must come down. Government has been saying that central expenditure must come down. The whole concept of people building things locally that could be built centrally must change. But this isn't just an overhead cost reduction exercise for IT. This is about saying that IT is an enabler of efficiencies in other areas. If you look around, you can't find examples of an organisation that has been been created in the last ten years that hasn't been underpinned by technology.“
Suffolk also pointed out that to talk about the G-Cloud singular is perhaps inappropriate as well. “Do I think that the government will have one Cloud? No. You have to question the health model, the policing model, local authority model and so on. Different areas will make progress at different speeds. My view is that you should make progress as quickly as you can. If people have to work at a different pace then that's fine.“
Unstoppable force
But he was adamant that the move to the Cloud was unstoppable. “You wouldn't expect people to generate their own electricity. Computing is becoming a utility. Computing should be a commodity for as many in the public sector as possible. It's about efficiency, effectiveness, speed and driving the cost out of IT,” he said.
As for deliverables, the G-Cloud team is still in the design phase at the moment and will be until about mid-February. “We've got about 100 people working on it with the [Cloud Computing] industry providing many resources,” said Suffolk. “You have to be a realist. There is a lot of talk about [Cloud Computing] but when it comes down to brass tacks there's very little now around. We're using industry and their knowledge from around the world to see how Cloud Computing works in practice."
Despite this level of external advice from Cloud providers, Suffolk is adamant that this will not mean that this will dicate the shape of future deliverables. "One of the reasons we are so happy to have so many external supplier helpingi s that they themselves have to learn," he said. "Of course there is a risk that people will come along and say that the government Cloud should look like this because it's good for them, but there are so many people who can act as a counterweight to that that the risk is small. They have to learn as well from us as that will change what they do as well.”
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