HMRC becomes first major department to use G-Cloud

HMRC is the first major government department to use the G-Cloud to procure centralised data storage, in a deal with Skyscape.

Phil Pavitt, CIO of HMRC (pictured), said: “This change will save over £1m a year in running costs and will increase reliability and security of HMRC’s internal IT services. The Skyscape contract is a major step for HMRC in moving away from traditional ways of working with large service providers.”

For HMRC, the change will mean moving data currently stored in local offices to cloud storage between autumn 2012 and early spring 2013.

The news comes as government departments appear to be stepping up their spend through the CloudStore, with the Government Digital Service having also selected Skyscape to provide an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) provider through the G-Cloud.

But in an interview with Computer Weekly, earlier this year, Pavitt said larger government departments may struggle to make the 50% target to channel all new IT spending through the Cloud Store.

“I think for two or three big authorities dealing with very specific [systems] that will be hard,” he said.