Google makes in-roads into the public sector

Google Cloud has made a concerted effort over the course of the past two years to win more public sector business, exemplified by the announcement at its 2023 London Summit about its decision to create a dedicated public sector business division.

The organisation does have a long history of working with the public sector, with the early iteration of its cloud-based business productivity suite Google Workspace finding itself keenly adopted by local councils during the 2010s.

The internet search giant’s cloud arm has also previously worked with the UK’s government procurement arm the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) to offer preferential pricing on its services to public sector IT buyers.

Furthermore, Google has also participated in procurement agreements geared towards smoothing the path to cloud for public sector organisations, including the government’s hyperscale-focused Cloud Compute 2 framework.

According to data shared with IT watcher Tussell, Google Cloud has secured contracts valued at a minimum of £11.1m since announcing the launch of its public sector-focused division in 2023, including one totalling nearly £4m with DSIT.

However, with this new agreement in place, and Kyle talking up the government’s commitment to loosening the grip of legacy IT suppliers on the UK public sector, the amount of government IT spend put Google’s way could be set to grow even further.

During his appearance in the show’s opening keynote, Kyle said the government wants to help the public sector “shake off the legacy technology” that costs taxpayers “an absolute fortune” and leaves them vulnerable to outages and cyber attacks.

“More than one in four public sector systems run on this ball and chain tech, rising to 70% when it comes to police forces,” he said. “Right across our country, with contracts signed decades ago…we’ve seen a few tech companies really taking liberties with the public sector.”

As examples, he cited instances where public sector organisations have found it “impossible” to exit contracts with legacy tech providers, leaving their data “locked up” on “archaic servers” with the price of maintaining that tech “hiked year on year”.  

“I am determined to break free from those costly chains once and for all, through agreements like this [with Google], [so] we can transition public sector organisations trapped by the ball and chain of legacy services and products, and migrate to the cloud. That move alone will liberate public service organisations and…this partnership could see Google invest hundreds of millions of pounds in Britain’s public sector technology.”

It is DSIT’s intention to “drag” public sector IT “into the 21^st century”, he continued, and assist police forces, NHS trusts, local councils and government departments with getting a fairer price for the services they procure from technology firms.

“They [public sector organisations] just don’t just have the experience and the market clout they need to drive the best deal for taxpayers, [so] they end up paying the full shop front rate [for technology] that doesn’t even work for them in the first place,” he said.

“But they’re all buying on behalf of the same client: you the taxpayer, and that taxpayer is footing [an annual] bill for £21bn, for the same technology time and time again – and that is why I am determined to secure a new deal for buying tech for the British taxpayer.”

The Google deal means the technology company is now classified as a “strategic technology partner” to UK government, which is a type of relationship Kyle said he is keen to cultivate with other tech firms too.

“I want to acknowledge the foresight of Google in signing this key agreement, and I want more to follow. I want it to stimulate many similar cooperation agreements with the full range of international and domestic technology companies,” he said, adding that doing so will pave the way for higher economic growth, more jobs, better public services and greater value for taxpayers.

“My message to big tech companies is clear: bring us your best ideas, bring us your best tech and bring it at the best price, and – in return – you’ll get access to the biggest client in the country. One that will be increasingly intelligent and increasingly digital.”

As alluded to above, a priority for the UK government is also to ensure UK-based companies of all sizes get a “fair shot at winning” contracts, he added.

“[We will make sure] more UK tech companies can get their slice of that £21bn pie. That means more money for companies operating here in the UK, workers and founders,” he said. “It will help us achieve the economic growth upon which Britain’s future prosperity lies, and it will improve the public services.”