Government drops 'G-Cloud' from ICT strategy

Speculation that the government may be reconsidering the precise nature and viability of the "G-Cloud" has been heightened by the conspicuous absence of the term in its latest ICT strategy report, published a few weeks ago.

Issued by the Cabinet Office, the report mentions "standardised cloud environment" and "cloud-based models and platforms", but makes no specific reference to the "G-Cloud".

Microsoft national technology officer (NTO) Mark Ferrar spearheads the software giant's service provision to public sector organisations, including proposed cloud-based applications services based on its own Azure platform.

He intimates that the subtle change in wording could prove significant in the long run as the Cabinet Office seeks to disassociate itself from a term that has always been misunderstood.

"The government ICT strategy does not necessarily use the G-Cloud term any more though you see all the components of the G-Cloud still there," said Ferrar.

"No matter how hard we tried to articulate what the G-Cloud was, people always talked about a government-built cloud whereas it was only ever going to be a way of delivering services based on cloud technologies using a private and public architecture."

The departure of government CIO and G-Cloud advocate John Suffolk in December last year led many to speculate that the G-Cloud would disappear with him, especially as critics had deemed the concept unworkable due to security, performance and management concerns.

Those whisperings have increased since Andy Tait, deputy director of G-cloud, left the Cabinet Office to join virtualisation vendor VMware as head of UK public services strategy (ironically the VMware equivalent of Ferrar's role at Microsoft), earlier this month.

All of which leads to an assumption that the dropping of the "G-Cloud" name altogether is just the first step in ditching the initiative as we currently know it.

"G-Cloud in terms of a big bang project perhaps is no longer part of the coalition's strategy but there are clues there that indicate the move to cloud computing is still on the agenda," said Ovum analyst Jessica Hawkins.

"Namely the commitment to publish, within six months, an implementation plan for how services will shift to cloud-based technologies, and also the continued commitment to the public sector network programme (PSN)."

First announced in January 2010, the G-Cloud was expected to save the government £3.2bn a year by 2013/14, but its initial implementation will nevertheless require a substantial capital outlay on new infrastructure and services amid significant public sector budget cuts.

Many of its initial proposals, including a shared application store, datacentre consolidation and single, secure network appear to have either stalled or been put on the back burner.

Ferrara argues that the government still has the same impetus it had to save money, and that focus on cost will not change for some time, even though the emphasis may switch to shared services and automation.  

"With the new coalition there appears to have been a delay or hiatus while they figure out a slightly different way of doing it, including a new ICT strategy written around standards," he said.

"What will happen is that organisations will identify parts of the public sector where there are similar business processes involving people and manual input where more automation can make an impact, and the ICT strategy still alludes to that."

"Cloud computing can potentially offer agencies another way to access pooled investment, economies of scale and shared infrastructure in a way that the government cannot fail to embrace," added Hawkins.

"It can be both an alternative and a mechanism to reduce the risk and cost of shared services – instead of building in-house or opting for a full outsource it is inevitable that there will be a gradual shift to buying as a service."