The Bank of England is aiming to make more use of public cloud services as part of its One Bank Services Transformation strategy.
It has begun to look for partner to work with it in the design and construction of a new hybrid cloud environment – bringing together public and private clouds with internal hosting – under a two-year deal scheduled to kick off in April.
While it already uses hosting services and software-as-a-service for some functions, it now wants to access public cloud services, citing the flexibility of platforms and infrastructure to support its business into the future. It also acknowledges that the security of cloud services has improved to the extent that they have become a viable option.
As a result, it wants to understand best practice in identifying, configuring and delivering the optimal service.
Conversations
The only work done so far has been a series of conversations with cloud providers and consultants and some public sector peers, but the Bank has pointed to the need for a partner to work with its development and project, security and governance teams.
The expected value of the deal is not stated but the tender notice says payment will be based against deliverables and outcomes to be agreed.
In March of last year the Bank was criticised by Parliament's Public Accounts Committe for spending a third more on its ICT than the central government benchmark. It pointed to a significant potential to make savings in technology systems and support.
Image by Captain Roger Fenton, public domain through flickr
