A flurry of Scottish companies have been named on the UK Government’s G-Cloud 10 framework contract – delivered by the Government Digital Service. The framework is designed to promote and encourage the uptake of cloud services across the UK’s public sector.

Brightsolid, Quorum Cyber, PODFather, DataVita and IFB have all been granted a place on the framework and join thousands of small businesses in a chance to bid to supply cloud computing services and solutions.

G-Cloud 10

The G-Cloud Programme is a cross-government initiative that aims to encourage the adoption of cloud services in the public sector. Since 2012 the aim has been to migrate more than 50% of Government IT spending to cloud-based services. This has resulted in over £3 billion of cloud and digital services having been procured by public bodies through G-Cloud.

The framework hopes to deliver innovative solutions in partnership with the public sector, fuel economic growth and support the delivery of highly efficient public services to meet the ever-changing needs of Britain’s digitally-active population.

The Scottish companies which have been announced as approved GCloud 10 suppliers are:

Brightsolid

Brightsolid will provide a full range of cloud solutions to support government organisations across Scotland in their migration to the cloud.

The Dundee-based firm hopes to showcase hybrid cloud as a simpler solution for public sector bodies, as well as providing organisations with flexibility and agility throughout the transition period. Brightsolid has an impressive track record of supporting government in digital transformation, working with some of the country’s largest councils.

Malcolm Smith, chief sales officer at Brightsolid said: “What’s great about this, is that it complements our position on the Scottish hosting framework, so we can provide a full suite of services for clients who need a mix of on-premise, co-located and varied cloud solutions.”

Smith added that the firms focus will be to provide a “consultative approach” to deliver cost-effective and future-proof cloud solutions at a “much quicker rate for clients, ensuring they can rapidly realise the benefits of cloud.”

PODFather

Edinburgh-based cloud software solutions company PODFather, specialises in Proof of Delivery and route planning systems for logistics, field service, construction and healthcare industries.

For PODFather, this is a landmark achievement that will see the company having three applications available for procurement – listed through the Digital Marketplace. The three applications to be delivered through G-Cloud 10 include the company’s core route planning/optimisation and electronic Proof of Deliver applications.

Waste material tracking, vehicle safety checking systems for large-scale construction projects and asset tracking solutions for the NHS G-Cloud service will all be provided by PODFather through its inclusion in the framework.

PODFather Managing Director, Colin McCreadie said: “Being on G-Cloud 10 means that we can offer our service and value proposition to a huge number of public sector and charity organisations in the UK, including services for the NHS”.

McCreadie added that the company’s inclusion “gives us confidence” that the business will continue to grow and develop through G-Cloud.

IFB

Digital infrastructure provider, IFB, says its offering on G-Cloud 10 will focus on the “design and delivery of secure, reliable and scalable digital infrastructure services” – a field it has extensive experience in.

With 20 years experience in delivering business critical connections, IFB provides services to over 900 organisations, spanning a wide range of markets and numerous locations.

In a statement the company said: “IFB is delighted to announce that is has been accepted onto the UK Government’s Digital Cloud Marketplace framework, G-Cloud 10. This means IFB joins the likes of Microsoft, Google and AWS in being selected”.

Graeme Gordon, CEO of IFB believes that this announcement will allow the company to extend its reach and build new relationships across the public sector.

He said: “IFB already delivers Cloud based services to its international Oil and Gas, Third sector and Professional Services clients and being part of G-Cloud 10 means we can extend our reach and build further relationships across the public sector in the UK.”

Gordon added: “This reputation for relevant and innovative business thinking and service delivery means we are at the heart of more and more of our clients Digital Transformation strategies that are underpinning the Scottish and UK economies.

“Covering keys areas including Cloud and Data Management, AI and Digital and Data Analytics, working with IFB has delivered million-pound savings and accelerated business efficiencies for our clients.”

DataVita

DataVita has announced it will offer a broad range of services on the G-Cloud 10 framework,and Managing Director Danny Quinn believes this will enable the firm to help customers transform their relationship with services.

He said: “We specifically tailored our G-Cloud offering to help customers transform the way they consume services but also to remain in control of areas such as data sovereignty, security and latency.”

Quinn added: “Our customers are clear that they want to continue to move towards a Hybrid model with data and services hosted on the most relevant platforms.”

Cloud products available on the Digital Marketplace include:

• Backup as a Service – BaaS
• DataVita Cloud – Multi Tenant
• DataVita Infrastructure as a Service – Private IaaS
• Disaster Recovery as a Service – DRaaS
• Storage as a Service – SaaS
• S3 Storage – Object Storage

Also included will be DataVita’s Hybrid cloud enablement product. This enable organisations to transition legacy systems to the cloud by providing dedicated server space within cloud-enabled data centres. The company says this will allow public sector organisations to “seamlessly” integrate to the cloud.

Quorum Cyber

Cyber Security specialists, Quorum Cyber, have announced that all three of its “Big Red Button“ cyber security cloud services will be available to public sector organisations; appointed to Lot 2 (Cloud Software) and Lot 3 (Cloud Support).

Quorum’s Big Red Button services capitalise on the power and agility but are designed to protect users and data in any location. The services included are:

• Phish – the anti-phishing service provides employee education, simulations and phishing mitigation in a single package.
• Click – this malware protection monitors outbound DNS requests to prevent users from interacting with malicious content or correspondence.
• Net – Quorum’s fully-managed Cloud Security Operations Centre (C-SOC) services is designed for ease of use and providing prospective clients with a reliable and cost effective service.

Quorum Cyber said in a statement that its inclusion in the G-Cloud framework will help to ensure that public sector organisations can continue to improve cyber security standards.

“The addition of Quorum Cyber’s Big Red Button services to G-Cloud 10 means that public sector bodies can benefit from the simplicity of the marketplace to access services designed to help them address the Minimum Cyber Security Standard.”

thinkWhere

Stirling’s geographic information and technology specialists, thinkWhere has been awarded agreements for Cloud Hosting, Cloud Software and Cloud Support services.

thinkWhere provides an online platform for sharing, storing and using maps and geographical data. Using Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies, the Stirling-based firm has developed cloud-based software applications and tools.

Acknowledged as having developed one of the first cloud-based platforms for Open Source GIS, the company has undergone impressive growth and has worked closely with the British Library, Scottish Government, Registers of Scotland and humanitarian charities around the world.

Alan Moore, CEO of thinkWhere believes the inclusion of thinkWhere will enable the firm to further pioneer the use of GIS technologies, stating:

“As specialists in GIS cloud software and services we are delighted to be included in the G-Cloud 10 Digital Marketplace. To date, the G-Cloud Framework agreements have been hugely successful, enabling thinkWhere to engage with and deliver innovation, online success and best value to local and central government organisations across the UK with a focus on achieving high quality, successful and sustainable outcomes.

“Our new and updated portfolio of GIS products and services available under G-Cloud 10 offer our customers even greater opportunities to transform their use of GIS.”

Edge Testing

Edge Testing Solutions, part of Eurofins Digital Testing, has been successfully awarded a place on the highly competitive G-Cloud 10 framework, the government’s latest cloud procurement framework.

Following a successful procurement process, Edge Testing can now offer additional cloud services to public sector organisations. Edge Testing is already on the G-Cloud 8 (G8), G9, Digital Outcomes Specialists 2 and the CCS Quality Assurance and Testing frameworks. The new award will support the company’s expanding reach across the UK public sector including central government, local government, health, education, devolved administrations, emergency services, defence and not-for-profit organisations.

As well as existing cloud services from G8 and G9 frameworks, suppliers can now apply to sell cyber security services on G-Cloud 10. This includes services that are assured under these National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) schemes:

• Cyber Security Consultancy
• Penetration Testing
• Cyber Incident Response

Edge Testing is offering security solutions including:

• Assessments
• Compliance
• Security program development
• Training
• Managed services
• Device testing

Sharon Hamilton, managing director of Edge Testing commented: “We have a strong public sector practice and an ever growing range of services that support our clients. We welcome the new G-Cloud 10, especially around the provision of security testing services, as they perfectly complement our existing provision in the testing arena.”

Hutchinson Networks

Edinburgh-based Hutchinson Networks has announced public sector organisations can now purchase from an extensive range of innovative services offered by Fabrix Cloud Platform. Built by Hutchinson in 2015 using the latest Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) technologies, the Fabrix is a reliable, flexible and scalable cloud platform.

Its services will enable public sector organisations on how to plan, design and optimise Cloud migration in their respective environments, as well as providing hands-on technical assistance and 24/7 monitoring.

Through a series of workshops, Hutchinson can assist in reviewing the existing network, provide business analysis, highlight workloads that can be migrated and assess the business impact.

It then designs the solution, plan the process, build a secure architecture and implement the hosting or software service.

The Fabrix Cloud products featured on the Digital Market place include:

• Fabrix Infrastructure as a Service
• Fabrix Cloud Exchange for Internet, SIP, WAN
• Fabrix Cloud Exchange for AWS, Azure, Office 365
• Fabrix Digital Workspace

Olga Melnyk, Director of Fabrix at Hutchinson Networks, said: “It’s exciting to now offer a comprehensive end-to-end offering to the public sector. Even organisations struggling with legacy networks can now access unified cloud services that combine Infrastructure-as-a-Service with the ability to integrate legacy infrastructure through the G-Cloud 10 framework.”

CompanyNet

CompanyNet, has been awarded a place on every G-Cloud framework since G-Cloud 3. Naturally, it comes at no surprise that this innovative Edinburgh-based software business has been retained on the G-Cloud 10 framework.

As experts in Office 365, CompanyNet delivers software to support organisation transformation and improve employee experience. This includes people change, using the ProSci ADKAR model, business process management solutions and specialist line-of-business applications.

The software firm is currently helping to deliver digital transformation in workplaces across the UK through the G-Cloud framework, with Kira sitting at the company’s heart. Kira is the company’s leading SharePoint intranet solution and represents just one of the 10 offerings the company has listed.

Other offerings include:

• Office 365 cloud consultancy
• SharePoint Online consultancy services
• Cloud Migration Service
• Huddle collaboration consultancy and support
• End-to-End Office 365 Enablement Servcies
• Dynamics 365 consultancy and support

CEO Andy Hamilton believes that CompanyNet’s inclusion on G-Cloud 10 will allow it to continue to deliver better, more efficient public services.

He said: “Engagements with the public sector have always played a crucial role in CompanyNet’s vision. As a company, we are driven by the desire to help public sector organisations deliver better, more efficient and beneficial public services by exploiting new technologies like Office 365 and new thinking like the ADKAR people change model.”

Hamilton added: “Our inclusion on G-Cloud 10 reflects our commitment to this approach and the quality and quantity of great opportunities emerging from the public sector, particularly in Scotland.”

Agenor Technology

Agenor Technology has announced that ICEFLO, its Gartner Cool Vendor platform is now available on the G-Cloud Digital Marketplace.

ICEFLO is a cloud-based platform that allow organisations to assess the business critical and high risk challenges of deploying change into a collaborative, real-time and controlled state. Allowing for detailed and complex deployment plans to be developed, rehearsed and proven.

This allows cut-over teams to preempt and answer some of the most commonly asked questions from senior stakeholders – and of themselves – during business critical cut-over events.

Agenor says it has taken “existing best practices based on spreadsheets and other static tools and structured them into a cloud-based, real time and collaborative platform.” – ultimately transforming the error-prone and sometimes chaotic cut-over experience into a calm and streamlined process.

Some typical use cases include:

• Application Changes
• Legacy Technology Refreshes
• Infrastructure Changes
• Disaster Recovery Rehearsals
• Data Centre Migrations and Optimisations

Jason Forsyth, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, said: “The ability to have a single version of the truth available to all parties involved in probably the most critical part of any technology or business changes gives clients the ability to make informed decisions, reduce risk and ultimately protect service.

“We constantly hear of ICELO being used to provide that extra level of comfort and assurance, whilst quietly delivering success.”

Wallet Services

Wallet Services SICCAR  blockchain platform, to secure and streamline cross-organisational collaboration, has been selected for G-Cloud 10. Now, Public Sector organisations can easily utilise the company’s blockchain platform without the need, or delay, of going through a whole tender process.

Our SICCAR platform is underpinned by the company’s Strategic Transformation support, to help organisations discover the potential for blockchain to their business.

Since UK Government’s ‘Cloud First’ pledge, the marketplace has seen year-on-year growth in sales; and the addition of a blockchain company indicates government’s commitment to being connected. Since the company’s recommendation of a Distributed Ledger Technology future for digital public services, the addition of our blockchain platform to the framework is promising.