Private Microsoft cloud computing service for government goes live

A new private cloud service, intended for use in departments dealing with confidential information, has been unveiled by a government IT supplier.
The new offering from FCO Services, which makes use of various Microsoft productivity and office tools, is intended to cut costs and improve productivity in departments such as the police, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).
FCO Services is a trading fund of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and provides various secure IT services to UK and overseas government departments.
David Smith, interim head of IT at FCO Services told V3 that the new product's aim is to keep installations ‘evergreen', thereby cutting the financial and time costs associated with system updates. "The intent is that we would be on the prevailing version once it's on a service pack release," he explained. "You'll either be on the current or previous version. It presents a chunk of cost avoidance."
Smith hopes that the services will see widespread adoption among the relevant government departments. "There's a big pipeline at the moment – we have 14-20 serious conversations going on at the moment," he said.
The new service is also targeting a greater amount of flexibility. Available on the government's G-Cloud IT procurement scheme, PSN360 can be purchased as a commodity and therefore scaled as usage requirements change.
PSN360 will sit among relatively few equivalent products on G-Cloud's CloudStore, and will be part of a select group of private and secure solutions, according to Microsoft's Nicola Hodson.
"Accredited private cloud services are still rare among large IT suppliers but by working with FCO Services we're able to bring Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Dynamics, and Lync to the G-Cloud with IL3 [departmetns storing confidential information] certification," she said. "This means public sector bodies can use business-critical programmes in a highly secure manner, protecting sensitive data and information."
The services included with PSN360 include PSN360 Mail, Collaboration and Communicator, and can be accessed from any accredited device, anywhere in the world.
The service is now available for purchase on G-Cloud, a scheme that has seen mediocre uptake in recent months. Yesterday, the Home Office encouraged government departments to ‘take a risk' on purchasing services on G-Cloud.