G-Cloud 5 is here: What’s improved, and what still needs to be done?

Updated 1819 GMT: Earlier this morning the UK government confirmed the fifth iteration of the G-Cloud cloud store was open, with 1132 suppliers making the cut and 1518 in total.

The list of suppliers for G-Cloud 5 was revealed at the end of last week, with plans to go live on Friday but for last minute bug fixes, as an official blog post confirmed.

The latest round of procurement for G-Cloud had opened at the end of February, with Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude aiming at the time for a further £100m to be spent through the platform by May 2015 and outlining the various opportunities provided to small, innovative IT suppliers.

Yet a lot of the time the UK’s government cloud initiative has …