Cloud Industry Pushes For Local Authorities To Be Educated On G-Cloud Usage
G-Cloud uptake is being held back by a knowledge divide between central and local government that must be addressed for the public sector procurement of services to expand.
Related: G-Cloud spending on SMBs tops £40m with large enterprises left in the lurch
Outsourcery, a cloud services provider, pointed out that knowledge sharing in the wider industry is critical for the future of G-Cloud procurement and to increase the number of local authorities using services.
“While take up figures may be low, there is real potential for the numbers to increase. Furthermore, there should be a focus on education across the entire cloud computing industry in order to grow the success of the initiative,” said Piers Linney, Co-CEO of Outsourcery. “Cloud education should be a priority not just for the Cabinet Office, but for all in the cloud industry if we are to see an increase in public sector companies making the leap to the cloud.
The lack of knowledge at a local government level was laid bare by a December 2013 commissioned by Six Degrees Group that found 87 per cent of UK councils and local authorities are not purchasing IT through G-Cloud and a huge 76 per cent had no idea what the G-Cloud framework could be used for.
“Just as central government should make it a priority to educate local government, CSPs like ourselves, along with resellers, should focus on teaching end-users not just about the benefits of the solutions, but importantly the intricacies of the offerings and how they fit with existing infrastructures,” Linney added.
Home Office CTO and former head of G-Cloud, Denise McDonagh, is another that has called for the Cabinet Office to do more through educating those that need to design and buy solutions from G-Cloud.
Related: G-Cloud uptake low among UK councils and local authorities
G-Cloud spending, as a whole, reached a total of £78 million at the last check in November 2013 and £57 million of it has been spent by central government with local government spending reaching a paltry £6.6 million.
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