Repository for versions of GDS Standards and guidance translated and/ or internationalised
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The UK government introduced a ‘Cloud First’ policy in 2013 for all technology decisions.
The following relates entirely to UK policy regarding the cloud. This is being shared to indicate what a cloud utilisation policy can look like in the public sector.
From:
In the UK when procuring new or existing services, public sector organisations should consider and fully evaluate potential cloud solutions first before considering any other option. This approach is mandatory for UK central government and strongly recommended to the wider public sector.
UK Departments remain free to choose an alternative to the cloud but will need to demonstrate that it offers better value for money. HM Treasury’s ‘Managing Public Money’ (annex 4.6) defines ‘value for money’ as ‘securing the best mix of quality and effectiveness for the least outlay over the period of the use of the goods or services bought’.
As part of the UK Spend Control process, GDS helps departments assure the mix of quality and effectiveness of cloud services across their whole life cost (this includes capital, maintenance, management, operating and exit costs). GDS bases its assurance on a number of factors - read more in How to assess a hosting business case.
By Cloud First, we mean the public cloud rather than a community, hybrid or private deployment model. There are circumstances where the other deployment models are appropriate but the primary benefits for government come when we embrace the public cloud. UK Departments are encouraged to initially consider Software as a Service models, particularly for their enterprise IT and back office functions.
Where bespoke development is necessary, departments should make use of public cloud hosting. This is an evolving area, which started with ‘Infrastructure as a Service’, and is changing with the development of ‘Platform as a Service’ (PaaS) offerings. The GOV.UK PaaS offers government digital teams a means to cloud host their services. The GOV.UK Trade Tariff service has blogged about how it is using GOV.UK PaaS.
UK Departments should always source a cloud provider that fits their needs, rather than selecting a provider based on recommendation.
Read more about how to host your service and how to manage technical lock-in.
The UK primarily uses the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) definition of the cloud, with one of the cloud’s primary characteristics being an on-demand, self-service model. Consumers of cloud services should be able to unilaterally provision computing capabilities, like server time and network storage, as needed without requiring human interaction with each service provider. There is more information on choosing a cloud hosting provider in How to assess a hosting business case.