The US government has approved eleven Cloud infrastructure as a service providers in a move that will be watched closely its UK public sector counterparts.
The General Services Administration has approved 11 companies as part of a five-year, government-wide Blanket Purchase Agreement to make Infrastructure as a Service solutions available to all levels of government through the gateway “Apps.gov”.
The eleven are: Apptis, partnered with Amazon Web Services; AT&T; Autonomic Resources, partnered with Carpathia Hosting, Enomaly and Dell; CGI Federal; Computer Literacy World, partnered with Electrosoft Services,XO Communications and Secure Networks; Computer Technologies Consultants, partnered with SoftLayer Technologies; Eyak Technology; General Dynamics Information Technology, partnered with Carpathia Hosting; Insight Public Sector, partnered withMicrosoft; Savvis Federal Systems; and Verizon Federal.
“Through offerings such as IaaS, GSA is providing government entities with easy access to cost-saving, high-value, more efficient technology solutions by doing a major part of the procurement processes upfront,” commented GSA Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies associate administrator Dave McClure. “By continuously working with industry, GSA’s cloud-based services available through Apps.gov are secure, compliant, and save taxpayer dollars by reducing duplication of security processes across government.”
Apps.gov will feature storage, virtualisation, and Web hosting solutions several vendors to support federal, state, local, and tribal governments. These new Cloud Infrastructure offerings are expected to help agencies realize cost savings, efficiencies, and modernisation without having to expend capital resources expanding their existing infrastructure.
“Cloud computing services help to deliver on this Administration’s commitment to provide better value for the American taxpayer by making government more efficient,” said federal CIO Vivek Kundra. “Cloud solutions not only help to lower the cost of government operations, they also drive innovation across government.” In the UK, work is still underway on a public sector Apps Store.
