Central government is making progress on the delivery of its Cloud First policy but the solutions implemented are falling short of the expectations of civil servants and failing to drive service innovation, according to new research published today by Eduserv, the not-for-profit cloud service provider.
The research which was conducted among over 800 civil servants for the report, “Delivering Cloud First” found that:
· The desire to improve efficiency is the top motivation for those adopting cloud computing, according to some 57% of those responding;
· The majority of cloud adoption (60%) to date has focused on delivering ‘Entry level’ Infrastructure as a Service solutions;
· Of all cloud-related projects implemented, just 10% were motivated by the opportunity to deliver better citizen-facing services.
The research also found many civil servants said cloud solutions adopted so far were failing to live up to their expectations:
· Some 83% of those who described their experience of cloud said it was negative or poor;
· Of these, 40% said they had problems with accessing data or applications they need to do their work;
· 10% said their ability to do their job was disrupted by the adoption of new cloud services.
Andrew Hawkins, Government Sales Director at Eduserv commented: “The government is making progress with its Cloud First policy but the extent to which efficiency is being prioritised over innovation is a real cause for concern. We appear to have arrived at a place where cloud computing is being used in central government to cut IT costs without necessarily resulting in improved services. Of course, efficiency is important but we need to make sure that cloud computing isn’t just seen as an opportunity to deliver cheaper IT bills but as the best way of delivering transformation in the effectiveness of government departments and the services they deliver.
Looking forward to the second year of Cloud First, the real measure of success shouldn’t just be the volume of sales going through G-Cloud 5 and 6 but the extent to which the services are being bought in order to deliver this strategic transformation.”
