Government CIO starts blogging

John Suffolk posts on issues from cloud computing to the future of the IT industry

Suffolk is blogging

Government CIO John Suffolk has started a blog outlining his views and ideas on IT in the public and private sectors.

Suffolk works in the Cabinet Office and is responsible for enabling public service transformation through the strategic deployment of technology, driving the development of shared services and implementing the cross-government green IT agenda.

His detailed postings so far have covered the Digital Britain report, the future of the IT industry, reports of government CIO council meetings and outlining future plans for a Government Cloud.

"With the elements detailed above we can begin to start the design and thinking about the establishment of a UK onshore, private G-Cloud," he writes after outlining plans for standardised networks and desktops and a rationalised datacentre estate.

"In essence infrastructure as a service, middleware/platforms as a service and software as a service. In relation to SaaS, I can’t see any reason why we couldn’t establish a Government Application Store ("G-AS" for want of a better code)," he says.

He doesn't see 2Mbit/s broadband as being a barrier to the creation of a government cloud, and floats the idea of a Web 2.0 environment bringing in non-government organisations.

"Would it be possible to design a Government Cloud and a Government Application Store in a Web 2.0 environment bringing in communities to detail the requirements, think through the issues, the designs and solutions etc?" he asks.