The Digital Britain Report is the Government’s strategic vision for ensuring that the UK is at the leading edge of the global digital economy.

The Report provides actions and recommendations to promote and protect talent and innovation in the UK's creative industries, to modernize TV and radio frameworks and support local news, and introduces policies to maximize the social and economic benefits from digital technologies. The Report is one of the central policy commitments in the Government's Building Britain's Future plan and draft legislative program.

As part of this program they support the creation of a Government Cloud or G-Cloud. The following are excerpts from the report:

• In addition to the Public Service Network we need to be able to add business application to create a "G-Cloud", using Cloud Computing. At the time the Government procured its secure intra-departmental email system - GSI - it did not have the knowledge or procurement capability to specify and add applications to the basic network. Now, with the CIO and the CIO Council, Government does have the capability and cannot afford not to use it.
  
  
• Cloud Computing is a model of shared network-delivered services, both public and private, in which the user sees only the service or application, and need not worry about the implementation or infrastructure. The cloud offers the ability to treat IT as a ubiquitous, on-demand service and to flexibly consume as much or as little as is needed. Cloud services are quickly and easily provisioned online and feature granular service catalogues and user-based pricing. The biggest IT companies are now rapidly introducing cloud services, with companies like HP and IBM both introducing cloud services and providing the infrastructure inside public and private clouds.
  
  
• The CIO Council and the Public Sector Council of Intellect, the trade association for the UK high tech industry, therefore commissioned a strategy study to see whether the technical advances associated with Cloud Computing - server and storage virtualization, systems management automation, image management, and self-service provisioning - could be used to provide a private cloud for Government - a "G-Cloud".
  
  The "public" Cloud - where services can run on any server anywhere in the world - has attracted attention from industry commentators. Achieving it, would be a first around the world for Digital Britain. But there are issues of meeting governmental needs for data location, security, data recovery, availability and reliability.
  
  The strategy study has established a route-map towards the creation of a G-Cloud, as part of the rationalization of data centers used by Government and the wider public sector. This would both allow Government to benefit from the core attributes of Cloud Computing (eg, enhanced user experience, flexible pricing, elastic scaling, rapid provisioning, advanced virtualization) while also maintaining the appropriate levels of security, accountability and control required for most Government systems, and lead to substantial savings in cost.
  
  
• The G-Cloud delivery model would also help make other parts of the Government IT marketplace more cost-effective, flexible and competitive. It would support and encourage the adoption of higher levels of standardization and sharing of IT services across departments. It would allow Government to provide more cost-effectively for peaks and surges in demand for e-Government services; and it would reduce the barriers to entry to the Government marketplace for application and other IT vendors, including SMEs, who would be able to provide services running on standardized, secure infrastructure without having to incur the costs of establishing and accrediting their own infrastructure (in the same way as companies such as 37signals have used public cloud facilities).
  
  
• The establishment of a G-Cloud will however require investment in technical development and physical facilities, and the CIO Council and the Intellect Public Sector Council are now developing the strategic business case to justify funding the G-Cloud. Provided that this business case can be properly developed, the adoption of the G-Cloud will be a priority for Government investment to secure efficiencies, even within the very constrained framework for public expenditure, over the next 3 years.
  
  
• In the meantime, all those Government bodies likely to procure ICT services should look to do so on a scalable, cloud basis such that other public bodies can benefit from the new capability.
  
  

For more information on Digital Britain, please visit www.culture.gov.uk/ or find them on Wikipedia. You can also download a full copy of The Digital Britain Report , or follow them on Twitter for updates.

Government ICT Strategy

 

• Report: The Government ICT Strategy
  January 2010
  The need to continue to transform public services and to use ICT to enable transformation of the way the public sector runs and operates has become more pressing. As the UK public sector has responded to increased and increasing demand within this complex technology arena, it has built an ICT infrastructure that in many instances duplicates solutions across different areas of government. The ICT Strategy will ensure that this infrastructure now goes through a process of standardisation and simplification, to create a common infrastructure designed to enable local delivery suited to local needs. Delivery will increasingly be through partnerships between the public, private and third sectors, and this strategy focuses on providing the greater interoperability necessary to underpin this model.
  
  

The ICT Strategy is Summarized below:
It consists of 14 strands of delivery, each of which is covered in more detail in the
Government ICT Strategy Report.

• 1. The Public Sector network Strategy - Rationalizing and standardizing to create a ‘network of networks’, enabling secure fixed and mobile communications for greater capability at a lower price.
• 2. The government Cloud (g-Cloud) - Rationalizing the government ICT estate, using cloud computing to increase capability and security, reduce costs and accelerate deployment speeds.
• 3. The Data Centre Strategy - Rationalizing data centers to reduce costs while increasing resilience and capability.
• 4. The government applications Store (g-aS) - Enabling faster procurement, greater innovation, higher speed to deliver outcomes and reduced costs.
• 5. Shared services, moving systems to the government Cloud - Continually moving to shared services delivered through the government Cloud for common activities.
• 6. The Common Desktop Strategy - Simplifying and standardizing desktop designs using common models to enhance interoperability and deliver greater capability at a lower price.
• 7. Architecture and standards - Creating an environment that enables many suppliers to work together, cooperate and interoperate in a secure, seamless and cost-efficient way.
• 8. The open Source, open Standards and reuse Strategy - Leveling the playing field for procurement, enabling greater reuse of existing tools, fewer procurement exercises and enhanced innovation – all at a lower cost.
• 9. The greening government ICT Strategy - Delivering sustainable, more efficient ICT at a lower price.
• 10. Information Security and assurance Strategy - Protecting data (citizen and business) from harm – whether accidental or malicious.
• 11. Professionalizing IT-enabled change - Building capable people and capable organizations with the capacity to deliver and manage fit for purpose IT-enabled projects and services.
• 12. Reliable project delivery - Using portfolio management and active benefits management to ensure that government undertakes the right projects in the right ways.
• 13. Supply management - Working together to gain maximum value from suppliers – both for individual organizations and collectively across the public sector.
• 14. International alignment and coordination - Ensuring that international treaties and directives reflect UK national requirements and that the UK remains at the forefront of delivery.

Download the Full Report

Video: John Suffolk, UK Government CIO, comments on the ICT strategy
January 2010

Resources

 

• Video: John Suffolk, UK Government CIO, comments on the ICT strategy
  January 2010
  
  
• Report: The Government ICT Strategy
  January 2010
  The need to continue to transform public services and to use ICT to enable transformation of the way the public sector runs and operates has become more pressing. As the UK public sector has responded to increased and increasing demand within this complex technology arena, it has built an ICT infrastructure that in many instances duplicates solutions across different areas of government. The ICT Strategy will ensure that this infrastructure now goes through a process of standardisation and simplification, to create a common infrastructure designed to enable local delivery suited to local needs. Delivery will increasingly be through partnerships between the public, private and third sectors, and this strategy focuses on providing the greater interoperability necessary to underpin this model.
  
  
• Article: Government Cloud
  June 2009
  The UK's Government CIO, John Suffolk, gives an overview of their ten strand approach to building a government cloud (G-Cloud) program. He discusses the initiatives that led them to adopt a cloud computing strategy and how it will include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. He also talks about establishing a Government Application Store.
  
  
• Report: Digital Britain Report
  June 2009
  The Digital Britain Report is the Government’s strategic vision for ensuring that the UK is at the leading edge of the global digital economy. The Report provides actions and recommendations to promote and protect talent and innovation in the UK's creative industries, to modernize TV and radio frameworks and support local news, and introduces policies to maximize the social and economic benefits from digital technologies. The Report is one of the central policy commitments in the Government's Building Britain's Future plan and draft legislative program.
  
  
• Report: Greening Government ICT Report
  
  
• Report: Open Source, Open Standards and Reuse: Government Action Plan