SCC hails G-Cloud first

Integrator is first in the UK to achieve government accreditation to supply public sector cloud services

Integrator SCC has staked a G-Cloud first, after securing a coveted accreditation to supply its cloud services to all government and public sector bodies.

SCC's Secure Multi-Tenanted Cloud (SMTC) service is the result of a multi-million pound investment by the Birmingham-based firm, the technology solutions brand of SCH.

Tracy Westall, public sector director of SCC UK, said the service could be likened to an 'Amazon for the public sector', enabling the government to take advantage of a multi-tenanted platform for cloud services. Services offered will include pay-per-use, leveraged infrastructure, capacity on demand and access for new software players.

"SCC has been making a lot of investment in the datacentre and cloud capability, and this accreditation completes our end-to-end cloud offering," she said. "We believe that we have done something that nobody else has delivered, and are establishing ourselves as the thought leader in this space."

Westall added the challenge was cutting through the cloud hype created by the industry.

"The industry has a lot to answer for as there is a lot of cloud wash," she said. "We have had to stay focused on what we believe the cloud should be and we have built a real cloud. We know it will deliver savings, flexibility and choice. The beauty is this is not just for central government, but for all aspects of the public sector, so the possibilities are huge."

Explaining how the contract was won, Rhys Sharp, CTO of SCC's public sector business, added: "Back in October 2009, the government decided to engage with the IT industry as part of its cloud ICT strategy and we made a decision that we would move forward and build a cloud suitable for government from scratch."

Sharp said the integrator had to jump through some ‘pretty big hoops' to secure the accreditation. "We had to ensure we had the right levels of security in place and we engaged with [evaluation body] CESG very early on in the development process to make sure that we architected our platform correctly. This elongated the process and meant we had a lot of work to do to get it right."

Denise McDonagh, IT director at the Home Office and G-Cloud programme director, praised SCC's achievement.

"Increased use of technology and the cloud in particular provides a fantastic opportunity for public sector organisations to be more efficient, and the G-Cloud programme is about establishing a flexible, cost-effective framework which is also secure and meets the needs of the public sector, so we're delighted that SCC is the first UK provider to gain Pan-Government Accreditation," she said.