A survey of UK councils and local authorities, commissioned by managed data service provider Six Degrees Group, has found that nearly all – 87% – of UK councils and local authorities are currently not purchasing any of their IT through G-Cloud. The survey, conducted to benchmark where the public sector is in terms of understanding G-Cloud, brings to light concerns about the G-Cloud messaging from central government.
The survey highlighted that out of nearly 300 UK councils and local authorities questioned, only 38 were involved in any procurements via G-Cloud. In fact, 76 per cent of local authorities and councils showed no knowledge of what the G-Cloud framework could be used for.
G-Cloud, which launched its fourth iteration last month, G-Cloud 4, has been designed to give the public sector a flexible means of accessing accredited providers to procure their cloud services. The G-Cloud 4 framework should make it easier for councils and local authorities to access small and innovative cloud providers to help them to reshape how they provide public services.
Campbell Williams, group strategy and marketing director at Six Degrees Group, explained: “These statistics show that there is a communication issue from central government. Cloud services have the potential to be revolutionary for the public sector and G-Cloud is a framework specifically intended to make sourcing these services simple. However it’s clearly not doing its job for a huge number of councils and local authorities in the UK, which could otherwise be benefiting from the expenditure savings, innovations, agility and security of cloud computing.”
Williams continued, “As a CESG accredited provider of IL2/3 cloud services, 6DG is committed to helping the public sector with cloud adoption and we’re disappointed that G-Cloud is still failing both customers and suppliers alike. If those behind G-Cloud don’t educate the public sector soon, government procurement for IT will continue to be handled by the same old faces delivering the same poor outcomes for the taxpayer.”
