What G-Cloud and the CloudStore means for the public sector

Why does the public sector need cloud? What is the CloudStore and is the cloud one way to overcome the age of austerity? Two of our Microsoft cloud experts help answer those questions and more in our double cloud whammy with Daniel Batts, head of business development for the public sector and Mark Ferrar, national technology officer at Microsoft UK...

Microsoft, G-Cloud and the CloudStore

Microsoft has a lot of experience in the Cloud, says Daniel Batts, head of business development for the public sector at Microsoft UK, and his team can help organisations plan a measured move to the cloud and, in so doing, leverage the most from their investment in Microsoft technologies. The key building blocks are ready and available now on the CloudStore: Office 365, Dynamics CRM and Windows Azure - all of which, operating in either public or private cloud, integrate seamlessly with their on-premise counterparts.

Cloud, commodity and the public sector

Is cloud one way to overcome the Age of Austerity? Mark Ferrar, national technology officer at Microsoft UK, tells Helen Olsen why the public sector should take advantage of cloud technology and the commodity marketplace now emerging. Whether it be Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service or Software as a service, Ferrar says that 'new technology has enabled new things' and that whether you move all at once or take a step by step 'hybrid' approach, there are 'dramatic savings' to be made in the cloud. But most importantly, he says, it should be 'cloud on your terms'.