UK's G-Cloud strategy on track

CloudPro reports that the UK government's strategy to adopt cloud computing is still going ahead, despite numerous reports the scheme had been ditched.

This was according to Martin Bellamy, director of change and ICT at the Ministry of Justice, who said that not only was it going ahead, but a strategy document outlining implementation plans for the G-Cloud would also be published next month.

Bellamy denied the government is ignoring opportunities within the cloud. "The vision for the G-Cloud still remains intact, and there is increasing progress on delivery," said Bellamy.

“However, I think we need to recognise that ICT in government is something that has grown up over 20, 30, 40 years, Computing.co.uk quotes Bellamy as saying.

“When you have got an IT landscape that is that old, and has thousands of unique business applications, it will take some time to completely refresh it - but the journey has started," he added.

The project, which in part aims to see a reduction in the costs of data centres, has been running a number of pilot projects, reports ZDNet.

The Home Office has implemented a multi-tenanted private cloud through managed hosting provider, Savvis, and Warwickshire County Council has piloted Gmail and Google Docs, according to Bellamy.

The government wants to use public cloud providers where possible, and to increase the use of SME providers, but faces a number of challenges in public G-Cloud implementation.