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Examining the G-Cloud Initiative – How the UK Public Sector is moving to the Cloud
Guest Post by Ben Jones
Ben Jones is a tech writer, interested in how technology helps businesses. He’s been assisting businesses in setting up cloud based IT services around the south of England.
There’s a cloud on the horizon of Whitehall. But this isn’t a prediction of stormy times ahead. No, this is the G-Cloud, and it’s being heralded by some as government’s biggest ever IT breakthrough.
In years gone by, the government has been accused of paying too much for IT contracts, many of which were won by a small number of suppliers. But now, the G-Cloud initiative aims to change this. The online system called, CloudStore, is part of the government’s plans to slash IT costs by £200million per year. So how is this going to be achieved? Well, the target is to move half of the government’s IT spending to cloud computing services and the CloudStore, also dubbed the government’s app store, is the key.
It was first announced as a government strategy almost 18 months ago in March 2011 with specific aim of making IT services for the public sector easier and cheaper. This means ditching the expensive bespoke IT services with lengthy, expensive contracts. Instead this initiative aims to replace these with more choice both in suppliers and, as a result prices. It’s a radical change in the historic approach by both the government and the public sector. Furthermore, cloud computing has the potential to be a global governmental strategy, with the American government already having its own version in place. And a look at the figures gives a clear indication why, with some governmental departments reporting a drop in the cost of IT services by as much as 90 per cent. And following the first CloudStore catalogue launch in mid-February, some 5000 pages were viewed in the first two hours, and in the first ten weeks, contracts worth £500,000 were signed. In this first procurement, around 257 suppliers offering approximately 1700 services were signed to the first G-Cloud CloudStore.
It’s the government’s attempt to bring competitiveness to its suppliers, encouraging a wider selection and promoting flexibility in procurements thus allowing more choice to the public sector. And what’s interesting is the mix of both small and medium sized businesses with over half of the suppliers signed to the first CloudStore being SMEs. This includes the likes of web hosting company Memset whose managing director Kate Craig-Wood backed the G-Cloud Services, who says they offered value for money for the taxpayer.
This new initiative heralds a new era for the British government and the wider public sector. And it’s hoped the new IT system will put paid to the Government’s history of ill-advised and mismanaged IT projects. That’s not to say there haven’t been any concerns over the G-Cloud Initiative. Some key concerns have related to how it’s going to be rolled out to public sector workers across the UK with some employees having fears over security as well as a lack of understanding. However, these haven’t stopped the second round of procurement for the G-Cloud in May 2012 with the total procurement value now available there soaring to £100 million. And in this time, the framework will run for 12 months and not the six as per the first iteration. This year-long contract will then become the standard, although it has been reported that this could be extended to 24 months in certain cases.
Coalfire Accredited as FedRAMP Third Party Assessment Organization
Coalfire Systems, Inc. announced today that it has achieved accreditation as a FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) Third Party Assessment Organization (3PAO).
The FedRAMP program supports the U.S. government’s objective to enable U.S. federal agencies to use managed service providers that enable cloud computing capabilities, and Coalfire is one of the first ten accredited 3PAO firms. With this certification, Coalfire is the only assessment firm authorized to conduct cloud assessments for the federal government (3PAO), healthcare industry (HITRUST certified) and the payment card industry (Qualified Security Assessor).
FedRAMP provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. As a part of the FedRAMP process, cloud service providers (CSPs) must use a FedRAMP approved third party assessor to independently validate and verify that they meet the FedRAMP requirements.
“Moving to the cloud raises numerous security concerns for any business,” said Tom McAndrew, executive vice president, professional services at Coalfire. “For government agencies, these concerns can be even more sensitive since national security can be at risk. This accreditation further validates Coalfire’s expertise in cloud security and risk assessment and we look forward to working with CSPs on their FedRAMP initiative towards receiving an authority to operate (ATO).”
Receiving the accreditation of 3PAO means Coalfire will be able to validate the security and control implementations that CSPs must provide in order to work with and provide cloud services to federal agencies. 3PAOs are critical to the FedRAMP program, as they demonstrate the independence and competency of CSPs that host the government’s most crucial data.
In addition to demonstrating the requisite technical competency in FISMA and independence and quality management to achieve 3PAO accreditation, Coalfire has diverse leadership experience in additional vital compliance fields – in cloud and virtualization environments – such as PCI, HIPAA/HITECH and GLBA; backed with expert staff that includes former CIOs, CTOs and auditors. Coalfire staff are heavily experienced in those respective industry regulations and are located across the U.S. Coalfire has offices in seven major markets in the U.S. including the Washington, D.C. area.
FedRAMP implementation began earlier this month and will be done in phases – starting with 3PAOs assessing CSPs. Coalfire has already begun preparing agencies and cloud service providers for testing. The wave of activity is growing and includes assessments and penetration tests with interested CSPs this month. Inquiries for FedRAMP services can be made with Coalfire at 877-224-8077 or at http://coalfire.com/FedRAMP-
For those interested in learning more about the FedRAMP certification process, Coalfire will be conducting a free webinar on July 10, 2012 at 2:00pm EDT / 11:00am PDT. Click here to register.
Xerox to Build Health Insurance Marketplace for Florida Health Choices
Florida Health Choices, a corporation established by the state to improve access to health care, has selected Xerox to administer its Insurance Marketplace, a program designed to give small business and eligible individuals more flexibility in finding affordable health insurance and other services. The nine-year contract is valued at $68 million.
With partner CHOICE Administrators Exchange Solutions, Xerox will provide a cloud-based Web portal and online plan selection tool to give consumers and employers more information when making health insurance selections. The solution preserves the benefits of employer-sponsored insurance and eases the administrative burden for small businesses.
“We’re designing and supporting programs that increase access to health coverage for consumers,” said Will Saunders, group president, Government Healthcare Solutions, Xerox. “The solution we create in Florida will serve citizens and small business owners and help position the state as a leader in establishing a competitive and voluntary health insurance marketplace for small employers.”
Xerox will also provide eligibility determination and enrollment management services for the program, and operate a customer contact center to share information on marketplace offerings. These services will help Florida Health Choices handle the massive amounts of information involved with the marketplace quickly, efficiently and securely.
“We need a partner who can get a fully functional marketplace setup that is designed to serve Floridians now and into the future – delivering on both our short and long-term goals,” said Aaron Bean, chairman, board of directors, Florida Health Choices. “We’re confident Xerox will support us in establishing our marketplace quickly, while helping us to increase healthcare access to small business employees – one of our key priorities.”
Xerox has more than 40 years of experience working with government health agencies to enhance the efficiency of health programs and help ensure the health of citizens.
Xerox, CHOICE Administrators Team to Deliver Health Insurance Exchanges for States
Xerox has formed an alliance with CHOICE Administrators Exchange Solutions in all 50 states to offer a comprehensive, secure, cloud-based Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) solution. States can begin implementing and customizing the solution today with confidence that the HIX will be fully operational for October 2013 enrollments and for January 2014 coverage effective dates, the deadlines set by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
“Our discussions with states show that the majority want to make health reform as state-specific as possible and to maintain control over their HIX rather than defaulting to the federal solution,” said Kevin Counihan, president, CHOICE Administrators Exchange Solutions. “As the certification deadline gets closer, it’s increasingly important for states to consider a comprehensive solution that doesn’t require building a product and allows time for customization. States can tailor their HIX solution developed by Xerox and CHOICE to meet the needs of their residents and small businesses and be sure their HIX is ready on time.”
CHOICE Administrators Exchange Solutions delivers the framework of the HIX Solution Suite, a software-as-a-service cloud-based platform, which allows participants to make informed enrollment decisions while providing their sponsoring employers the infrastructure to maintain affordable budgets. Xerox provides the business process and technology solutions to help states operating a HIX handle massive amounts of information quickly, efficiently and securely on behalf of millions of people.
“Xerox has more than 40 years of experience working with state governments,” said Kevin Walsh, vice president, Healthcare Eligibility and Insurance Exchange Services, Xerox. “Our expertise, knowledge of the marketplace and partnership with CHOICE positions us well to support the HIX design to increase access to health coverage for consumers.”
12 State and County Governments Join doxo
doxo, the all-in-one digital file cabinet and payment provider, today announced that a dozen state and local government agencies have joined doxo. doxo enables these government agencies to send bills, tax statements and other notices directly into the doxo filing cabinets of their residential and commercial customers. In turn, their customers can now go paperfree, receive documents and bills, and set-up one time and recurring payments, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – using doxoPAY and doxo Mobile.
When governments connect with residential and commercial customers on doxo, they eliminate the costs associated with printing and postage, shorten payment collection cycles for treasuries, and provide their customers with a convenient free tool to receive statements, pay bills, and store important documents.
“Like many government entities, we have been evaluating opportunities to improve service and cut costs by leveraging cloud-based technologies. In just the first 60 days since we launched on doxo, more than a thousand of our residents have already connected with us to go paperfree, receive their tax statements directly to their doxo file cabinet, and make their tax payments,” said Doug Lasher, Treasurer, Clark County Washington. “Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Making sure property taxes are paid on time is a breeze with doxo and free for the taxpayer. doxo is the wave of the future.”
In addition to the State of Washington, the county agencies now on doxo include Benton County, Chelan County, Clallam County, Clark County, Franklin County, Island County, Lincoln County, Pend Oreille County, Stevens County, Thurston County and Walla Walla County. Collectively, these government entities serve millions of residents and deliver tens of millions of documents per year.
In addition to receiving documents, bills, and tax statements from their participating government entity, customers can use doxo as a free online file cabinet to store documents and manage critical account information. Each time a customer connects to a service provider, paper mail is turned off completely, and documents are thereafter delivered directly to their digital file cabinet. Documents can be filed, printed, or downloaded at any time, and are securely stored without time limits.
“doxo makes it easy for state and county governments to reduce the expense of paper mail, eliminate environmental waste, and speed collection of payments,” said Steve Shivers, co-founder and CEO of doxo. “With very little IT hassle, government agencies and other providers can join doxo, and start improving service for residents and cutting costs in a matter of weeks. It’s extremely gratifying to already see both the magnitude of savings and the positive response from both residents and organizations alike.”
doxo empowers businesses and government organizations of all sizes to lower operating expenses and dramatically increase paperless adoption. As a cloud-based service doxo requires no software, installed infrastructure, or IT services for providers to join the network. More information for governments and other organizations looking to connect with their customers on doxo is available at www.doxoconnect.com.
