Government Five Year IT Strategy Proposal Leak

A version of Government ICT Strategy: “New world, New challenges, New opportunities” which is aimed at positioning the government's approach to IT for the next five years has been leaked prior to its planned release later this month.

Below is a brief summary of the alleged main findings and recommendations of the "review".

New Technology focus:
The leaked report claims many new technologies will become mainstream over the next 5 years, but that the three it names are of particular interest.

Web 2.0: will provide the basis to improve public sector interaction with customers and partners.

Cloud technology: will enable the development of different business models for the procurement, use and reuse of applications; and service oriented architecture – which provides a set of principles and concepts defining how services interact with each other – can enable the delivery of the G Cloud and an online store of government applications.

Semantic technologies: which separate data and content files from application code and meanings, and could enable computers to handle transactional tasks that currently require human intervention also feature with the review.
It also points to location aware services, human computer interaction – which removes the need for a keyboard – and technologies for more energy efficient operations.

Extension of existing Intiatives
The paper also provides details on a number of existing initiatives, outlining 14 strands of activity. Among other uses the first of these is the Public Sector Network, which will lay the ground for a number of standardised services such as authentication, secure file transfer and federated email.

A prototype of the G Cloud infrastructure is scheduled for delivery early in 2010, and a pilot version of the Government Applications Store, an online portal for the sharing and re-use of business applications, should be launched in the first half of the year.

Shared Service and Convergence
The paper also outlines plans to develop 10-12 highly resilient strategic data centres for the public sector over the next three years, and to develop a common desktop strategy. This will involve delivering 80% of central government desktops through a shared utility service by 2015, and promoting wider use by the rest of the public sector. It is also planned to converge with the cloud by 2015.

Other areas covered in the document include shared services, architecture and standards, open source, green ICT, information security and assurance, the government IT profession, better project delivery, supply management, and internal alignment and compliance.

Finally, the paper emphasises that, while the Cabinet Office, the Chief Information Officers Council and the Office of Government Commerce will provide leadership, the strategy will be implemented primarily by individual organisations.

Early reaction has been mixed and we’ll be posting a summary of responses and opinions as the story develops.

Original article posted on www.guadian.co.uk