UPDATED 12:39 EDT / DECEMBER 03 2012

NEWS

Not Secure Enough for Prime Time: Amazon And Google Denied G-Cloud Iteration

Amazon Web Services and Google weren’t able to make the cut for G-Cloud ii–the second iteration of the government cloud platform in the UK.  The first iteration happened in April and AWS also missed that with G-Cloud’s head Denise McDonagh stating that Amazon was concerned about the UK government possibly auditing US data centers.

As for the reason behind why the two didn’t make the cut this time around, it wasn’t clear if they were denied or the pulled out.  It’s unlikely the two have the two pulled out as in the 662 expressions of interest received for G-Cloud ii, Google and Amazon appear two of them.  In the end, only 458 suppliers, were able to make it.

Google did not directly address the matter but stated that they were “looking forward to working with our resellers to provide a product offering that meets the government’s needs.”  No words as to whether they’d be going after G-Cloud iii framework.

As for Amazon, they were adamant in stating that they want to get involved with G-Cloud in the future with their spokesperson stating and that, “The worldwide public sector is an important and fast growing customer segment for Amazon Web Services and we continue to help local and central governments around the world develop their cloud strategies.”

“We currently work with public sector departments in the UK and work through a strong partner ecosystem to provide Amazon Web Services to the UK government outside of the G-Cloud programme. We look forward to watching the G-Cloud programme evolve and working with the UK government on the upcoming round of the bidding process.”

The Cabinet Office, responsible for overseeing G-Cloud network iterations, said that they are “continuing to work closely with all potential suppliers wishing to apply for the next G-Cloud framework”.

But Huddle CEO Alastair Mitchell, who’s part of the G-Cloud program believes that the two were not approved because they weren’t ready as they both lacked UK-based data centers as well as the lack of assurance as to whether data would be backed up in other countries.

“Governments, and an increasing number of large corporates, are increasingly concerned that as they get increasingly savvy about the cloud, they realise the different nuances of the cloud and where you host your data and especially data sovereignty,” Mitchell told TechWeekEurope.

Mitchell also stated that though Google and Amazon made marks in the US when it came to cloud services, they haven’t penetrated the UK.


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