UK government urged to go all-in on cloud

If the UK government wants to close the gap on digital transformation leaders China and Russia, it needs to go all-in on cloud technologies. This is the conclusion of a new report delivered to the Cabinet Office last week.

Behind the proposal sits the Commission on Smart Government (CSG), a project of GovernUp, an independent group of business leaders and ex-senior civil servants that seeks to help the government reform its operations.

The proposal suggests government IT systems move entirely into the cloud by 2023 and make greater use of digital ID. That should “bring Whitehall into line with modern private sector organizations”. The proposal also claims a cloud-first mindset would help tackle the financial woes many public sector organizations faced during the pandemic.

“Everyone has moved to the cloud and towards more agile, digital-first ways of working; the government needs to follow suit rather than fall behind. Our recommendations will help the Government get there, fast”, said Jacky Wright, Microsoft CDO.

Further, the document argues better cloud adoption would “disrupt the dominance of large outsourcing providers”.

The report offers a total of 60 recommendations that cover all sorts of areas, from how public sector agencies spend money and buy tech solutions, to how they obtain and use data. It also suggests creating new tech-focused departments and overseeing bodies.

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