Gov't CIO weighs up public-sector app store
Kable
Published: 22 Jun 2009 15:49 BST
Government chief information officer John Suffolk has said he is considering the creation of a virtual applications store for the public sector.
Sutton made the comment on Friday in an online debate on cloud computing, following last week's publication of the Digital Britain white paper. One of the report's proposals is the creation of a 'G Cloud' of government applications to run alongside the Public Services Network.
Suffolk said the government applications store is a possibility following three years of work on standardising desktops, bringing different telecoms infrastructures into the Public Sector Network, rationalisation of datacentres and an increased emphasis on open source and open standards.
"I guess my thinking... is firstly some applications will just be core, and if a public body needs that capability, they get it from the store. This is important if we are to standardise, simplify and dramatically reduce cost and delivery timescales," Suffolk said.
The government's strategy on open source, open standards and reuse would be the key to making this work, he added.
More specialist applications could be made available through the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. Organisations could use SaaS to access specialist applications as needed in a virtual environment rather than on their own system. Suffolk added that this approach would probably require the use of open-source technology to comply with EU procurement rules.
He also warned that the government would have to resolve some complex issues relating to European procurement law, "but if we can crack this we shift the paradigm again".
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