G-Cloud deputy director leaves Whitehall

Government remains silent on implications of Andy Tait's departure for its cloud plans...

The Cabinet Office could not confirm what difference Tait's departure will make to its cloud plansPhoto: Shutterstock

The official helping to lead the government's shift towards cloud computing has left Whitehall.

Andy Tait has stepped down as the government's deputy director of the G-Cloud, datacentre consolidation and application store programme.

Tait's departure comes at a time when the government is drawing up a strategy that will detail how organisations across the public sector will move to accessing IT services from the cloud.

When asked about the future of the deputy director role, a Cabinet Office spokeswoman said that "we will announce who will take this work forward in due course".

Tait had been in the role since November 2009 and has left Whitehall to join virtualisation specialist VMware as head of UK public-services strategy.

Under Labour, plans were devised for government to move to a cloud infrastructure called the G-Cloud, which was identified as being a "key enabler" of £3.2bn savings per year that the Operational Efficiency Programme said should be possible by 2013-14.

However, the G-Cloud name was not mentioned in the government's recent ICT strategy and Bill McCluggage told silicon.com it is up to individual organisations in the public sector how much they choose to save by moving to cloud services.

Chris Chant is overseeing the government's cloud plans, alongside his role as interim executive director of digital for government.

The government is advertising for someone to take on the executive director of digital role full time, on an annual salary of about £142,000.

The role will involve implementing the coalition government's digital strategy, which includes an overhaul of government websites and online services, and a move to delivering certain services digitally by default.