The new government plans revolve around one secure network and an apps store
Government announces latest ICT strategy
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27 Jan 2010, Dave Neal , V3
The government has announced new plans to save billions of pounds a year through the better use of information technology.
The newly announced Government ICT Strategy is expected to lead to savings of £3.2bn annually by 2013/14, and will be smarter, cheaper and greener, according to cabinet office minister Angela Smith.
"We are committed to putting the public's needs first. That is why we are innovating and revolutionising our ICT systems to ensure that they are as effective and efficient as possible for those working in the public sector, and at the same time we are able to make huge savings," she said.
The new government plans revolve around one secure network, which will help to unify technology, thus removing the extra cost of overlapping investments and the duplication of technology.
The new Government Cloud, or G-Cloud, virtual network will allow public sector bodies to host their services. Smith said that it would also act as a pool of resources, letting departments and organisations pick and mix the services they need.
"Multiple services will be available from multiple suppliers on the network, making it quicker and cheaper to switch suppliers and ensure that systems are best suited to need," the government said in a statement.
As part of the plans the government will cut the number of datacentres it uses from a currently unspecified number to around 12, saving £300m and leading to a 75 per cent reduction in power and cooling costs, according to the statement.
Following trends seen more or less everywhere, the government will also create an applications store which will let departments share and reuse programs such as word processing and email apps. This element of the plan is designed to speed up procurement, and is estimated to save £500m a year.
Desktop computers will also be standardised, leading to further savings of approximately £400m per year, the government said.
"We have seen a period of significant change over recent months and years. Technology has changed, the economy has changed and ICT in government must also change," said John Suffolk, government chief information officer.
"This strategy sets out a new model for government ICT which will deliver a secure and resilient ICT infrastructure that will enable faster, better services for the public."
Ewen Anderson, managing director at desktop and virtualisation management firm Centralis, suggested that the plans would be challenging, but welcomed the attempt as it may encourage more organisations to follow the government's lead.
"Broadly speaking [the plans] reflect the need to establish strong partnerships with capable organisations, to make savings through consolidation and to ensure that wherever possible 'things that really work' are made available as best practice standards throughout the public sector," he said.
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Do you agree?
Does it make sense to have one strategy for such a large sector?
I question whether it makes sense to have one IT strategy for such a large part of the economy. The Government's ICT strategy is vague and focused more on technology than meeting business objectives, which may be a consequence of trying to cover the whole public sector in one document.
Although there are some pragmatic comments on inter-operability throughout the report, this is really a catch-up and an area that most commercial organisations have included in their IT strategies for 10 years. This is all a bit too late in my opinion but may explain why the Government is trying to make this all-encompassing document fit for purpose for the whole of the public sector.
Some of the ?initiatives?, such as the rationalisation of data centres, will cost significant money to implement before we see any benefits. However as Martin Read noted in his recent report, the public sector does not have adequate measurement, control or accountability processes to ensure this type of proposal actually delivers the savings promised.
Throughout the report there is little new thinking about how to avoid further IT disasters in the future. It doesn?t matter if intentions are good; if there?s a substantial investment, there needs to be a substantial and tangible return and real user ownership for disasters.
Alwyn Welch
CEO
Parity Group
Posted by Alwyn Welch, 28 Jan 2010
Government announces latest ICT strategy
Cloud computing! What is that we actually save?
If it is the energy-then the current hardware already used as is would need exactly the same amount of energy as it would if everything were to be brought under same roof-would it matter if we bring everything under one roof after all then? The amount of energy used will be the same as all applications needs to run round the clock-especially government once. But by bringing everything under one roof would mean that there are possibilities of one point of failure. One point for the hackers to hook on to get through the entire system. Actually the underworld would celebrate this opportunity, as the entire underworld dons can make a united and strong security breach.
In spite of various levels of security at different government organizations now, the breach does happen. But at least not all systems are affected at the same time. Government's this strategy of bringing everything under one place-G-Cloud should seek better rationalization from the experts. It should not be just a political decision, but experts with proven background should be brought under one roof for brainstorming, so that various scenarios could be thought through thoroughly. Of course we should also invite underworld dons who would have been bread to think and act negatively to make our strategy work without any glitch.
Posted by Human Being, 03 Sep 2010