The G-Cloud, designed to simplify UK government purchasing of online services is making IT cheaper and faster, Tony Singleton, the director of the programme at the Government Digital Servcice (GDS), told a London conference this week.

Despite reports that the service was being sidelined, Singleton said it remained central to the government’s programme for making IT procurement more efficient. ”We are not scrapping the G-Cloud,” he told London’s Cloud Expo. “Why would we?”

Faster, cheaper, easier

The stated aim of G-Cloud is to make it reduce costs for cloud services used by the government, and part of this involves loweing the barriers for procuring services from small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). 

The latest version of G-Cloud features a Digital Marketplace, which makes it easier for SMEs to find government contracts, and for government departments to find suppliers. It includes some 20,000 services, from nearly 500 suppliers. 

The turnover on G-Cloud is about £467 million, but it has been criticized because around half the business on it is given to the large enterprises which are traditional government suppliers. 

Singleton pointed out that this figure is for value - measure it by volume, and SMEs provide two-thirds of the services bought through G-Cloud. This could mean the larger suppliers are charging more, he said, and SMEs are giving better value. 

The future of the G-Cloud is a little more nebulous now than in the past. Francis Maude, minister for the Cabinet Office, has driven its progress so far, but he is standing down as an MP at this general election. There’s a chance he may continue in the post, if he is elevated to the House of Lords, and the Conservative Party (or a Coalition in which it features) remains in power.