Government pushes Office 365 move for public sector bodies

Public sector has become 'more open' to the cloud in recent years, according to partners

The government is advocating for more public sector organisations to embrace Office 365 and the cloud.

The Microsoft app is being initiated as a way to reduce reliance on the government's Public Services Network, the internal intranet service still used by many parts of the public sector.

In a tweet, Microsoft UK boss Cindy Rose said the push is a "great example of how public sector organisations can embrace the benefits of the cloud".

Microsoft has published a pair of documents, one which explains how Office 365 adheres to the 14 cloud security principles mandated by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC); and the other on how the software's capabilities "can be used to ensure that a common bar can be achieved for their Office 365 tenant".

A spokesperson for the NCSC said: "This guidance has been developed through the shared expertise and successful collaboration between the NCSC, Microsoft and the Government Digital Service.

"The advice aims to help private and public sector colleagues check and improve the security stance of their Office 365 deployments."

Paul Timms, group managing director at MCSA, told CRN that he thinks the government is pushing for this move for security reasons rather than the benefits of an overall cloud migration.

"I would imagine most public sector bodies have been running a Microsoft platform of some description and 365 is just the next version of Office product," he said.

"It's just a way of getting them onto a more secure Microsoft product as opposed to the cloud."

Public sector bodies have broadly been viewed as being slow, if not downright hesitant, to adapt to technological developments.

Last year it was revealed that the NHS is still heavily dependent on fax machines, causing the government to order the machines be phased out by 31 March 2020.

Chris Bunch, head of Cloudreach Europe, stated that although some departments are viewed as being hesitant when it comes to migrating to the cloud, central government itself has been forward-thinking with regards to it.

"It has been supportive of cloud adoption for a long time," he explained.

"There is significant spending on public cloud from the government through the G-Cloud framework, but I suppose as a fraction of their total IT expenditure it is probably still relatively small."

Bunch adds that the hesitancy from public sector bodies towards the cloud has abated in recent years and he chalks this up to issues surrounding data storage regulations.

"A big part of this [open-mindedness] is due to the major cloud vendors building datacentres in England last year," he said.

"Prior to that there were some data classification challenges with storing data outside the UK.

"It meant that some of the government entities weren't able to store their data in the cloud because it didn't tick the box with regards to geographical location.

"Any concerns from the public sector now are probably about execution of large technical projects.

"I suspect we will see significant continued upswing in cloud and cloud-related expenditure coming through the G-Cloud as existing large contracts start to come to an end."