IBM talks up open cloud, downplays vendor lock-in as it signs public cloud framework with UK.gov

As predicted by El Reg, IBM has joined the growing band of mostly American vendors to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the UK government that defines discounts for public cloud sales to public sector buyers. The framework forms part of the One Government Cloud initiative that involves the Cabinet Office, its buying arm …

[karlkarl]

Haha, all this because our gov wants cheap handouts from the cloud companies.

It is a bit sad to realise that our government is little more than a fat freetard.

[Jimmy2Cows]

So you're saying our government shouldn't try to maximise value for taxpayer money, and instead just accept the first price offered?

[karlkarl]

Rather than begging for handouts they should come up with a cost efficient solution that can be maintained indefinitely. It just so happens that the Cloud is probably not going to be an option.

As a single example I refuse to believe that the millions they sink into Microsoft's wallet each year for their excess licenses of Office 36x is justified when they could just stick with the old copies. Its not like they need the cutting edge features do they?

[Anonymous Coward]

"It is a bit sad to realise that our government is little more than a fat freetard."

I'm not sure there's any suggestion that the UK government will be getting IBM cloud (or services from any other cloud provider) for free.

[theExecutive]

Hello Hello Hello Hello

Hello how am I being your help please?

[fredesmite2]

Insider news

Running on "IBM" cloud means Softlayer and Supermicros Intel white boxes

There is not a single piece of IBM hardware in the mix ... including AIX or PowerPC .

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Insider news

And?

It's what IBM consider their cloud offering (having brought Sortlayer...) and there's not much left in the IBM hardware stable these days to provide an alternative server platform for most enterprises.

Considering that it's likely to be an upgrade on traditional IBM "legacy" hosting, the government "should" be getting a better deal. No, I'm not going to place a bet on that....

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering there is a significant percentage of applications that will be unable to move to public cloud for a number of reasons , I hope UK gov are also investing time and energy to look at how they can bring a more cloud like experience to those workloads as well. The potential business case for modernising in this space is arguably as big or bigger than the applications that can leverage public cloud easily.

[Anonymous Coward]

"how they can bring a more cloud like experience"...

You mean brown-outs, inability to get hold of anyone who knows what's going on, inexplicable infrastructure design decisions governed by cost that cause other odd behaviour, and my private details spaffed all over the place because of piss-poor security?

As a user, I'd think I'd like to pass on that experience, thanks.