Over 750 new firms added to G-Cloud framework

G-Cloud 8 launched this week with blockchain added for the first time

Some 757 new suppliers have been added to the G-Cloud 8 (G8) framework.

The eighth incarnation of the public sector purchasing vehicle launched this week with the total number of suppliers on the G8 and G7 services now standing at 2,726.

Ninety-four per cent of the new suppliers added are SMEs.

Skyscape announced a rebrand to UKCloud last week, to coincide with the G8 launch.

"As a firm supporter of the development of G-Cloud, we welcome the latest iteration and are pleased to confirm that our full range of accredited services will be available via G-Cloud 8," said Simon Hansford, CEO at UKCloud.

"Four years on from the launch of our first platform on the G-Cloud framework's debut iteration, the public sector is maturing and we're seeing more complex requirements for big data projects and multi-cloud deployments.

"As demand for cloud computing and technical support for these more complicated solutions grows, our broad range of offerings remain easily accessible via G-Cloud, providing public sector organisations with compliant and cost-efficient services."

The latest statistics show that total sales through G-Cloud currently stand at £1.3bn.

G8 will offer blockchain-as-a-service for the first time, with Credits becoming the first blockchain firm to be added to the framework.

Credits will supply distributed ledger technology, which enables its blockchain platform to be used by organisations in the public sector.

Credits CEO Nick Williamson said: "Credits is pleased to have been awarded a place on the G8 platform.

"We are excited by the huge potential of distributed ledger technology for many government and public sector applications, and are looking forward to working with UK public sector organisations to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their services for UK taxpayers."

The launch of G8 coincided with the appointment of a new boss at the Government Digital Service (GDS).

Kevin Cunnington joins GDS having previously held roles at Goldman Sachs and Vodafone.

Cunnington was most recently director of business transformation at the Department for Work and Pensions.