Cloud collaboration and content management offerings provider Huddle has teamed up with FCO Services, a government body which works in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services, to launch the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application Huddle IL3.

London-based Huddle hopes that the new application will enable public sector organisations to collaborate securely on classified data in the cloud.

The company said that the SaaS application will enable office-based colleagues, remote workers and teams across government to access and distribute content up to IL3 (RESTRICTED) with security measures and accreditation.

Huddle IL3 is expected to reduce costs by allowing content collaboration in one central place.

The company said that Huddle IL3 can be set up in minutes, with no special architecting or customisations required, and software updates occur automatically.

Huddle CEO Alastair Mitchell said that the company is combining Huddle’s expertise in online collaboration with FCO Services’ experience of providing essential, secure support services to government at higher security levels.

"Rather than battling with costly on-premise systems, government now has the opportunity to deploy a secure online application that enables people to get their job done. Being cloud-based, Huddle IL3 can reduce the management overheads of technology infrastructure, increase flexibility and improve productivity," Mitchell said.

FCO Services’ (GSAE) platform was created specifically for government and hosted by government. It aims to support cloud based working and help departments achieve the 25% efficiency savings led by the Corporate Spending Review 2010.

FCO Services CEO Chris Moxey said, "Our agreement with Huddle to host this collaboration application on our GSAE platform will help departments to make efficiency savings without the risk of compromise to data."

"The GSAE Platform has been created specifically to meet the needs of the public sector, which needs to access and utilise SaaS applications at IL3 (RESTRICTED) and IL4 (CONFIDENTIAL). As a trusted partner to government with a considerable amount of experience in secure ICT, we are confident that we can support other government organisations move securely into the cloud," Moxey added.