IBM, UK Sign Public Cloud Agreement to Boost Essential Services

August 13, 2020 - Crown Commercial Service (CCS) and IBM recently signed a three-year public cloud agreement that will allow public sector organizations like the National Health Service (NHS) to innovate with digital solutions and services to help evolve essential services for UK citizens. 

Through IBM’s public cloud, organizations in highly regulated industries can modernize their workloads while maintaining the highest levels of security for their data and applications, the company stated.

Under the agreement, all Central Government organizations including local authorities, education, and NHS can benefit from better commercial terms to help transform workloads and develop new services, IBM said in the announcement. 

“As the public sector embraces an increasingly digital future, it can capitalise on the speed and agility of the public cloud, while balancing the need for security and compliance through advanced security capabilities such as pervasive encryption of data at rest, in flight and in memory,” the company said.

The IBM cloud is built on a foundation of open source software, security leadership, and infrastructure. It has more than 190 cloud-native application program interfaces (APIs), including blockchain, IoT, severless, and DevOps.

These features give organizations more flexibility to access services and manage vital technology issues such as data, security, services, and workflows across a hybrid, multi-cloud environment.

Users will have access to IBM Multicloud Manager, IBM Cloud Paks, Red Hat OpenShift, Cloud Garages, and Power Virtual Servers on Cloud, VMware, and Cloud Migration Services.

“CCS provides commercial agreements which help organisations across the entire public sector save time and money on buying everyday goods and services,” Simon Tse, chief executive of CCS said in the announcement.  

“This agreement with IBM provides great value for public sector organisations as they continue to innovate and improve essential services for citizens throughout the UK.”

IBM said that the company is dedicated to advancing standards of ethical business practices but strives to “stay aligned with current policies and practices that govern the public sector.”

Therefore, agreement with CCS furthers IBM’s Government Cloud First policy, which requires public sector organizations to evaluate cloud solutions before considering another option.

By the end of the year, IBM expects to have a larger global network to help meet performance and deployment requirements.

“As the public sector continues its rapid digital transformation, government organisations crossing many industries need a reliable, resilient and secure technology environment to meet the needs of citizens and address complex security and regulatory requirements,” said Janine Cook, vice president for public sector, IBM UK and Ireland. 

“An open hybrid cloud platform, built and managed with IBM’s deep industry expertise, can allow the public sector to accelerate its innovation and offer a more agile way to develop new digital services and take the next step along their cloud journeys.”

Numerous IT companies have adopted a public cloud in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A recent survey found that 82 percent of IT leaders ramped up their use of cloud and 66 percent of leaders said they will continue to increase their overall use of cloud even after the pandemic ends.

Additionally, 76 percent of respondents said that the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in spending on private and public cloud infrastructure services. These include Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and the Google Cloud Platform.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has turned cloud into an essential service for many organisations, as well as highlighting the complexities of managing cloud cost and usage,” said Jay Litkey, executive vice-president of cloud management at Snow Software.