DataCentred has been awarded a governmental contract to provide HMRC with its OpenStack public cloud to support HMRC’s multi-channel digital tax platform (MDTP).
British open source cloud computing and data centre services provider DataCentred, who already is a supplier to the government’s G-Cloud framework, will now deploy its OpenStack architecture to offer the scalable infrastructure required.
The company has also been tasked with speeding up the delivery of the MDTP, the vehicle through which HMRC’s digital services will be delivered.
Speaking to CBR, Dr. Kevin Curran, senior member of the IEEE, said: "The news that DataCentred is providing HMRC with OpenStack public cloud support for HMRC’s multi-channel digital tax platform (MDTP) is in line with the UK Government Digital Strategy to build digital services which are so straightforward and convenient that all those who can use them will choose to do so whilst those who can’t are not excluded. The cloud offers such a platform to do so."
DataCentred claims its cloud product is the UK’s only OpenStack public cloud. The company usually builds private clouds providing public sector organisations with control over their pools of resource.
Its consultancy arm advises public sector bodies on migrating from physical data to cloud storage, helping them achieve the right balance between public and private clouds.
Dr Mike Kelly, CEO of DataCentred, said: "We are delighted to be working with HMRC to provide the public cloud infrastructure in support of its multi-channel digital platform.
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"DataCentred’s UK based OpenStack public cloud is secure and flexible enough to deliver cloud solutions to the public sector and demonstrates our ability to support organisations of all sizes, strengthening our position as a trusted supplier on G-Cloud. We look forward to our continued work with government agencies."
Curran also said that transactional services now present the biggest opportunity to save people time and save the government money, with the government currently providing more than 650 transactional services.
"Awarding a contract to DataCentred also confirms the Government’s promise to broaden the range of those tendering to supply digital services including more small and medium sized enterprises," he said.
"As part of the Digital Strategy, they seek to involve more private sector companies in the roll out of these leaner services in addition to building common technology platforms for digital by default services such as OpenStack."
As of the end of September 2015, G-Cloud reported over £807 million of sales (ex VAT), according to the Government.
Of this, 50% of total sales by value and 60% by volume from all reported G-Cloud sales to date have been awarded to SMEs. Central government bodies accounted for 77% of this total, with the remaining procurements adopted by the wider public sector.
Last November, DataCentred was also given a place on the G-Cloud 7 framework by Crown Commercial services. This will allow public sector organisations to use the G-Cloud Digital Marketplace to buy DataCentred’s OpenStack powered Infrastructure as a Service cloud platform.
