Should the Cloud Go Public?
November 18, 2011
The evidence is beginning to slowly seep through: the public sector is finally starting to “get” cloud computing.
Almost every day we hear of corporations, local authorities and other public bodies dabbling with software as a service.
Small and medium-sized businesses have been “getting it” for a while but what is causing the public sector to join the cloud revolution?
Is it the simple fact that organizations are simply catching on to the benefits or maybe our age of austerity is forcing public bodies to be more creative in the way they seek to cut their costs…
Whatever the motives, it is crystal clear that the cloud is making real progress within the public sector. In fact the latest figures from the Cloud Industry Forum, have revealed that the take-up of cloud computing within the public sector has risen 11% in the past nine months.
Andy Burton, chairman of the Cloud Industry Forum, is far from surprised by the increase.
“It’s a sign of the age of austerity. Every public sector organization is facing budget cuts out there,” he explained, rather convincingly.
He added: “The over-arching pressure is on the public purse. I’m starting to see cloud services appearing on RFQs (request for quotes) and that’s something that wasn’t happening a year ago.”
Having said that, Burton believes that cost savings are not the main reason for cloud adoption, claiming company flexibility is by far the bigger reason.
Last week in the UK Sunderland City Council made headlines when it announced it was moving many of its IT applications to a cloud platform under a deal with computer giant IBM.
IBM will provide the city-wide cloud platform that is expected to reduce the council’s operational costs by £1.4million a year. The local authority claims it will recoup the £5.7million investment cost over the next five years.
Council leader Paul Watson said: “The cloud is a cornerstone of our economic masterplan. The new cloud infrastructure will lay the foundations of an even smarter Sunderland, one that ensures the city is internationally recognized as a model for its operations and a prime location for inward investment.”
He also said the public would have quicker access to the council’s services.
The UK Government also seems to be catching on and is due to announce its Cloud Strategy shortly, already nicknamed “G-Cloud”.
Chris Chant, the Government’s designated cloud supremo, has gone on record saying its move towards cloud computing will stop the expensive way the public sector implements IT. He also says system integration costs will be slashed, as will the number of back office staff.
Chant recently told the digital networking event Teacamp that the cloud would alter several unavoidable truths about government IT: “The vast majority is outrageously expensive, ridiculously slow, poor quality, and most unforgiveable it is rarely user-centric.”
In the cloud, Chant said the Government would no longer enter into contracts for more than 12 months and was also planning to break up the 80% of government IT contracts controlled by just five suppliers.
Interestingly, the Government Applications Store will play a major role in the cloud computing strategy. It will provide a portal for public sector organisations to source IT services, with a ratings system so public bodies can compare user experiences. The first government app store will be launched in March 2012.
Chant said that apart from high security systems, the vast majority of IT services could be delivered in this way.
“[With the cloud] we start from ‘this is what the user needs’, then comes the system at the right price, then comes the security wrapper to make it appropriately safe. And that, for many, is a 180 degree turn – and it’s the way all government IT must be delivered from now on,” he said.
Nick Marshall, Managing Director of Giacom World Networks, one of the UK’s biggest players in cloud computing, said the public sector’s inexorable move towards the cloud was inevitable.
He said: “I think the most encouraging aspect of the Government’s G-Cloud strategy are the pilot schemes and pathfinder initiatives to develop tried-and-tested services that can be taken up across the whole public sector.
“The G-Cloud vision seems to be agile, collaborative, transparent, while also offering a change in culture. These are all integral and widely accepted benefits of cloud services and offer great potential to change the way local and national government deliver services.
“In our experience small to medium sized businesses have so far been – and will remain – the main beneficiaries of cloud computing, especially in terms of the low cost and the savings they make. But as the economic gloom continues without much sign of improvement, the public sector could be about to join the revolution big time.”
So it seems the public sector’s affection for the cloud could be more than a passing fling.
Whatever the reasons, the age of austerity, or an eagerness to move with the times, public bodies could be poised to propel the cloud revolution into the stratosphere.