Government opens up on Ark partnership

Cabinet Office describes new hosting service as an 'exception to the Cloud First policy'

The government has revealed more information about its tie-up with Ark Data Centres, branding the new initiative an "exception" to its cloud-centric IT model.

In March, the government announced it had teamed up with SMB IT supplier Ark Data Centres to create Crown Hosting Data Centres in a bid to save the public sector up to £105m.

In a blog post today, the government opened up on the partnership, boasting the services it can offer with Ark, including a pay-as-you-use payment model, datacentres for legacy systems and secure facilities graded as Official, Secret or Top Secret.

The government said the scheme does not fit in with its cloud-centric model and described it as an "exception".

"The Cloud First policy states that a cloud solution must be considered first," it said. "As part of the spend-control process, departments must explain the reason why moving to the cloud solution is not immediately possible.

"For the majority of buyers, Crown Hosting is an interim measure enabling them to keep older systems running while they transition to cloud. However, for others, Crown Hosting provides a service where a cloud solution isn't suitable for security reasons. It provides cost-effective hosting for the whole of the public sector, without tying departments into lengthy and expensive contracts."