G-Cloud To Get G-Hosting Brother

The Cabinet Office has outlined plans for a G-Hosting service to partner the G-Cloud framework, aiming it at departments that want to shove legacy applications into the cloud.

In particular, the government wants to be able to get systems with “complex hosting requirements” onto the new framework.

“This hosting framework is for heavy lift hosting and would only be considered where G-Cloud cannot be used because of specific constraints of legacy systems such as technology, business service, business case, high security  or location,” a spokesperson told TechWeekEurope.

For complex apps only

“There are still a large number of complicated legacy applications across government and these will need to use this hosting to gain the benefits associated with a shared service. In addition there may be a need for some of their mission critical line of business applications to use it until cloud options are available and proven.”

The spokesperson said procurement for the new service is expected to start soon, possibly as soon as the end of this month.

According to the procurement page, it appears the service will not actually go live until the end of the year. A report from Computerworld UK earlier this week had indicated it would be ready for the end of this month, to go with a second iteration of the G-Cloud framework.

The government’s G-Cloud project has been gathering steam, with the launch of the CloudStore in February and its first sale in March. Denise McDonagh, Home Office IT director, has now taken control of the project, taking over from Chris Chant, who retired at the end of April.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude recently claimed the cost of the G-Cloud programme stands at around £4.93 million, with the expected savings measured at £340 million.

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