SCC Hails Pan-Government Cloud As Start Of New Era Of Private And Public Sector Collaboration

Leading integrator SCC has told a prestigious audience of business and government leaders that industry must take a more proactive role in implementing green technologies across the UK public sector.

Speaking at the Efficient ICT 2012 conference in London, SCC’s UK Public Sector Director challenged the private sector to take a more direct role in championing the introduction of green technologies to government IT. Drawing upon the example of it’s own multi-million pound investment in the UK’s first Pan-Government accredited Cloud solution, the company warned commercial enterprises that in order to create a public infrastructure capable of returning the efficiencies and environmental performance demanded, they will have to take more responsibility for its creation and delivery.

“While it has long been a trait of industry to hang back, watch from the sidelines and wait for government to act before it introduces green technology offerings for the public sector, that approach is no longer tenable. In the current economic environment, with budgetary constraints rampant, the private sector must be prepared to work in partnership with civic authorities and invest in creating the tools they need to deliver a more effective, more environmentally friendly generation of services,” said Tracy Westall, SCC’s UK Public Sector Director.

The call for increased industry participation and investment comes a month after it was announced that SCC’s OptimiseCloud™ service had become the first to receive Pan-Government accreditation for IL2 and IL3. Pointing to a two year development path and seven figure investment in the platform, Westall said that the private sector must be prepared to make similar commitments if it wants to see the UK infrastructure continue to evolve.

Westall added: “Public sector interest in the performance and environmental potential offered by Cloud has been evident for some time, but they needed services they could use in order to turn that into concrete action. We responded by delivering an accredited service and the reaction to that has been hugely encouraging. It has demonstrated that we can no longer simply wait for Government to ask, but instead need to innovate, challenge and debate as well as demonstrate how desirable and affordable these technologies are.”

Westall’s call for a more proactive approach from the ICT industry when engaging with the public sector was followed by a keynote speech from Department of Energy & Climate Change CIO Jennifer Rigby, who confirmed that e-procurement and cloud will drive the government’s green IT strategy. Also chair of the cross-departmental green ICT delivery unit GDU, she underlined the need for the more efficient use of technology in order to meet the government’s carbon reduction targets.

Rigby commented: “Government ICT strategy is there to deliver better public services at a lower cost; to improve productivity through re-use and sharing; to reduce waste through harmonising IT infrastructure such as public services network; and to make us more transparent around what we do with ICT, how we use it, its impact and its cost.”

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3. SCC Hails G-Cloud As New Era In Public IT Procurement
4. Are Open Data Standards Key To Cloud Success?
5. SCC Says G-Cloud Will Open Up Public Sector Market To Competitive SMEs