Wednesday 13th March, 2013

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude is considering a 'cloud first' policy for central government departments. If implemented, the policy would help ensure central government departments consider using cloud computing options first before any new IT spend. A similar policy was adopted in the US in 2010.

Speaking at a roundtable on cloud computing, G-Cloud programme director Denise McDonagh said, "There is now a general acceptance that we should have a cloud first policy".

The ‘cloud first’ policy, has been looked at by the Cabinet Office since January. It would be form part of the spend controls process which ensures all central government contracts valued over £5 million are subject to Cabinet Office approval.

The spend controls process, managed by Government Chief Technology Officer, Liam Maxwell, would include an element where departments are required to show they have looked at procuring through G-Cloud first.

As quoted in Government Computing: Vivek Kundra, who was responsible for setting up a cloud first policy in the US in 2010 during his previous tenure as US Federal CIO, admitted that he had faced challenges, but said that the policy was a "no-brainer" thanks to the huge savings it can offer.

Kundra, who is now Salesforce.com's Executive Vice President of emerging markets, said that the main challenge was around security and dispelling concerns that cloud apps are not as secure as on-premise apps. However, he said he was honest with colleagues and addressed these issues 'head-on', adding that once people realised moving to cloud would not result in a drop in security levels, they supported the programme.

Kundra also said that transparency helped him drive the policy forward. He admitted, "I took a very aggressive approach. We created a dashboard which had the photographs of all departmental CIOs alongside all the projects they were presiding over...as a public servant you have to remember you are spending taxpayers' money."