Reports have emerged praising the streamlining and cost-cutting possibilities of cloud computing facilities for government sectors, with results in Britain showing the public sector can reach efficiency goals through better software.

IT industry analyst Christine Arcaris says “Government expenditure on cloud computing continues to increase, driven by economic conditions and a shift from capital expenditure to operational expenditure.”

This is certainly true for the British government, which has been operating under the 'G-Cloud' system for some time. Government-Cloud (or G-Cloud) is a service which allows the public sector to buy various IT products from a pre-approved list of vendors.

A recent poll of over 500 British government workers in the 18 months since the G-Cloud system was launched has shown many are seeing the benefits almost immediately, though many more do not completely understand it.

Researchers found that while 47 per cent of respondents “understand what G-Cloud could offer them”, over two thirds 72 per cent still said they “still aren't confident about how to use it”.

“The study highlights there is still consultancy that needs to be done within the public sector to ensure organisations understand which cloud solutions best fit their needs and solve their challenges,” said a statement from the researchers.

Britain’s National Health Service Care Quality Commission recently awarded a hosting and support contract, procured via G-Cloud. The health administration department awarded the contract to a company called Ixis, which had previously been added to the G-Cloud list of approved suppliers for platform-as-a-service (PaaS), software-as-a-service (SaaS) and other tailored IT services.

Henry Cook, a program director with the NHS said: “We believe the G-Cloud framework is a valuable tool, and we're really pleased to have sourced and procured the web management services we require from it... this project is crucial as we expand our online presence and it will enable us to be much more responsive as we develop customer facing services.”

Similar results have come from the British Government's Insolvency Service in their move to cloud-based desktop hardware. A £16 million ($26.7 million AUD) contract was awarded to IT provider Atos, which has set up a service for 2,000 users which is on track to save a fair sum over its five-year duration.

The service has involved the roll-out of thin-client desktops. Thin-clients are heavily reduced computer systems, little more than a monitor and keyboard, which is designed to do most of its actual processing in a much more powerful, centralised server computer.

The Warwickshire County Council has moved its 185 schools over to the Microsoft Office 365 desktop productivity suite and SharePoint for emails, after a comparison with similar Google services.

Warwickshire schools have been using the suite for over two years, reporting mostly positivity from its 85,000 supported users.

Finally London's Hillingdon Council – which is claiming to be heading for a saving of around £3 million ($5 million AUD) in desktop PC maintenance costs over four years, by switching to a service based on several Google Apps.

The Australian Government announced its 'Cloud Computing Strategy' in 2011, which was updated to 'Version 2.1' this year. The strategy aims to shift as many services over to new-wave software as possible.

The policy is now well fleshed-out, some reports say it is lacking the human initiative to get to the level of integration that some British Government workers enjoy. Insiders say with massive push to cut costs in all levels of government services will create sufficient demand in the next year or two – and those that make the decisions will begin to see the budgetary and business benefits of improved IT systems.