Buying British

UKFast CEO Lawrence Jones questions HMRC's decision to switch hosting away from a local provider

How many times have we heard the term ‘Buy British' to support the UK economy? It makes perfect sense, yet often the government and public sector themselves fall short.

A prime example came in the news about DataCentred this afternoon. The UK-based hosting provider has ceased trading having lost its largest customer HMRC. Unfortunately HMRC moved their hosting away from a British SME to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

It's such a shame to see that not only have they moved away from a British provider, they've chosen a provider that simply doesn't contribute what it should to the British economy in terms of tax. This is frustrating at best. It's also slightly ironic that HMRC should use a company that has been accused of using creative tax arrangements.

That being said, we are seeing progress. We announced today that UKFast's public sector department is on track to triple revenues in 2017, following significant investment in our public sector and government offering earlier this year.

A better public sector alternative

Government and the public sector is a major growth area for UKFast. Our acquisition of public sector cloud specialist S-IA this year was timely. It came with relationships with organisations including the MoD, Cabinet Office and other high-profile government departments.

We're ensuring the government knows there is a better British cloud alternative. A provider more aligned to the needs of the great people of this country. On the balance of it, it's not just better value for money either; the government deserves clearer billing. The public sector want to know where their data is. Inevitably, they value having people at the end of a telephone on standby to serve them when they need it most.

They get all this for less, and the money spent with us stays onshore. It's not lining the pockets of the two richest men in the world. It's obvious that buying British is positive for our economy and it starts with government leading the way.

Lawrence Jones is CEO of UKFast