Joe Dignan, Chief Analyst, Public Sector Technology, Ovum

Cloud delivery and procurement is still a central plank in global public sector procurement. The G-Cloud Framework has been running for the best part of a year, having launched in April 2012, so now is a good time to revisit the UK government’s flagship procurement initiative, CloudStore.

At a recent event, Ovum heard that the UK’s CloudStore was a great success. We heard that the second iteration of the G-Cloud Framework included 71 new suppliers, bringing the total to 462, of which 75% are SMEs. With 2,814 new services being offered through the four lots, there are now 3,185 services on offer. The problem with this story is that total sales amount to less than £4m for the year. In fact, the top-10 buyers only spent £2.6m.

The new UK government CTO, Liam Maxwell, quotes the public …