At the beginning of November Julia and Susie were delighted to be informed that 21c had been accepted on the UK G-Cloud framework. The G-Cloud Programme is a cross government initiative led by Andy Nelson (Ministry of Justice) supported by Denise McDonagh (Home Office) under the direction of the Chief Information Officer Delivery Board as part of the Government ICT Strategy.
The initial focus of the programme is on introducing cloud ICT services into government departments, local authorities and the wider public sector. In order to do this they have undertaken a G-Cloud procurement framework for services under the OJEU process. These services can then be reviewed and purchased through the CloudStore. At present there are 4 categories of services: Infrastructure, Software, Platform and Specialist Services.
21c’s two offering’s fall under Specialist Services and are purposefully designed to help local authorities understand the value of using the cloud, how it can deliver savings for government, and most importantly – how to get started! A brief synopsis of the services is provided below:
Introduction to Cloud and the City: A half day workshop that introduces local government to the benefits of cloud computing.
Unlocking the Innovative Potential of Cities: A strategic consultancy service to help organisations develop new strategies/implementation approaches for harnessing the full benefits of cloud, including the convergence of key ICT trends – (1) Cloud, (2) Social Media, (3) Social Networking, and (4) Mobile/Information Management.