The government's G-Cloud project will cost £4.93 million, but it will make savings to the tune of £340 million, according to Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude.

G-Cloud is the framework which will provide civil servants with hosted computing and storage, aiming to bring the benefits of the cloud to public sector IT in terms of flexibility and cost savings.

The minister quoted the figures in response to a question asked by Labour MP Michael Dugher.

Dugher asked "what estimate [Maude] has made of the cost of full implementation of the G-Cloud and the Government Application Store".

Maude replied: "The estimated cost for the G-Cloud programme (including the CloudStore) is £4.93 million. This is being met from the Cabinet Office SR10 settlement and is subject to the ERG spend and controls process. The savings it is expected the programme will deliver are estimated at £340 million."

Exactly how lengthy a period would pass before the £340 million is recouped wasn't mentioned, a fairly crucial piece of information. Still, it's evident that the government does expect major cost savings, as we would hope.

Last week, it was announced that both Amazon and Salesforce are expected to be involved in the G-Cloud project, at least when G-Cloud 2.0 bursts onto the scene, which should be later this month. Both companies passed on signing up for G-Cloud 1.0 due to legal concerns.

Source: ZDNet