Cloud, green tech, shared services: key greening strategies for UK govt?

27 Sep 2011

Will green tech, the cloud and shared services play a crucial role in reducing the UK government's GHG emissions by 25pc by 2015?

The UK government’s draft Greening Government ICT Strategy will provide the UK ICT industry with significant opportunities in the areas of green technologies, cloud computing and shares services up to 2015 – that’s according to business applications and service provider Advanced Business Solutions.

The draft ‘Greening Government ICT Strategy’, set to be published in October 2011, will look explore ways of streamlining and greening covers all central and local government offices in the UK. It is in line with the UK Government’s ICT Strategy launched in March of this year.

Covering the full lifecycle impact of government ICT, the strategy appears to be on track to introduce key initiatives and commitments ranging from ICT procurement through to the disposal of ICT and mobile devices.

The ultimate aim of the strategy will be to lower the UK government’s own negative impact on the environment and to reduce GHGs and waste, in line with the coalition government’s aim to achieve a 25pc reduction in GHG emissions by 2015.

Speaking today, ahead of the report’s launch, Dean Dickinson, managing director of the Public Sector and Enterprise division of ABS, said that the report looks set to highlight how cloud computing, shared services and green technologies will be key government initiatives over the next few years, providing suppliers of these technologies and services with considerable opportunities.

ABS itself is a UK-based company that provides services to public, private and third sector organisations. Some of its customers include Aer Lingus and Royal Bank of Scotland.

“Once the Greening Government ICT Strategy has been published, public sector organisations will increasingly demand services and technologies that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and waste,” says Dickinson.

Advantages of cloud migration

One of the key initiatives outlined in the strategy is the increased Government adoption of cloud computing, as both businesses and the public sector starting to come around to the benefits of cloud in reducing their carbon footprint in the long term, as well as streamlining costs and improving efficiencies.

The move to shared applications and services is also recommended, giving ICT providers with shared services’ experience the upper hand, said Dickinson.

Introducing green technologies to govt departments

Crucially, the strategy highlights the importance of introducing green technologies into government departments, including those that can enable mobile working, paperless operations and improved collaboration.

Dean Dickinson Advanced Business Solutions

“The majority of targets set out in the Strategy document will need to be delivered between April 2012 and April 2015. This will lead to increased demand for a range of green technologies and services over the next three and a half years” – Dean Dickinson, ABS

Concluded Dickinson: “We have seen a number of Government departments adopt green technologies and services over the past few years, including cloud computing, shared services and green software solutions.

“The introduction of the ‘Greening Government ICT Strategy’ will push those Government departments that have not yet invested in green ICT to adopt sustainable technologies and IT services, providing the ICT industry with significant public sector opportunities despite the looming cuts.”
 

 

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com