UK Government G-Cloud

This article is about the UK Government cloud computing initiative. For the interstellar entity, see G-Cloud.

The UK Government G-Cloud is an initiative targeted at easing procurement of commodity information technology services that use cloud computing by public sector bodies in the United Kingdom.[1] The G-Cloud consists of:

  • a series of framework agreements with suppliers, from which public sector organisations can buy services without needing to run a full tender or their own competitive procurement process
  • an online store – the "Digital Marketplace" (previously "CloudStore"), which allows public sector bodies to search for services that are covered by the G-Cloud frameworks.

The service began in 2012, and had several calls for contracts.[2][3] By May 2013 there were over 700 suppliers—over 80% of which were small and medium-sized enterprises.[4] £18.2 million (US$27.7 million) of sales were made by April 2013.[5] With the adoption of "cloud first" policy in UK in May 2013 [6] the sales have continued to grow, reportedly hitting over £50M in February 2014.[7] These are based on procurement of some 1,200 providers and 13,000 services, including both cloud services and (professional) specialist services as of November 2013.[8]

  1. ^ Margaret Rouse (October 2012). "G-cloud (government cloud)". Search Cloud Computing. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  2. ^ Peter Middleton (6 August 2013). "G-Cloud 4 Now Open". G-Cloud blog. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference g13 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Public sector told to buy IT through the cloud as G-Cloud iii goes live". Public Service. 7 May 2013. Archived from the original on 31 July 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  5. ^ Gary Flood (22 April 2013). "U.K. Government CloudStore Sales Spike 300% In March". Information Week. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  6. ^ "Government adopts 'Cloud First' policy for public sector IT - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk.
  7. ^ "Another milestone for G-Cloud: Over £50million in sales reached - Digital Marketplace". 18 October 2013.
  8. ^ "Digital Marketplace". www.gov.uk.