The service will support computational and visualisation intensive workloads for UKCloud’s UK public sector and healthcare customers.

UKCloud’s GPU-accelerated cloud service, branded as Cloud GPU, is available in two versions:

• UKCloud’s Cloud GPU Compute: This is a GPU accelerated computing service, based on the NVIDIA Tesla P100 GPU and supports applications developed using NVIDIA CUDA, that enables parallel co-processing on both the CPU and GPU. Typical use cases include looking for cures, trends and research findings in medicine along with genomic sequencing, data mining and analytics in social engineering, and trend identification and predictive analytics in business or financial modelling and other applications of AI and deep learning.
• UKCloud’s Cloud GPU Visualisation: This is a virtual GPU (vGPU) service, utilising the NVIDIA Tesla M60, that extends the power of NVIDIA GPU technology to virtual desktops and apps. In addition to powering remote workspaces, typical use cases include military training simulations and satellite image analysis in defence, medical imaging and complex image rendering.

Simon Hansford, CEO of UKCloud, said: “Building on the foundation of UKCloud’s secure, assured, UK-Sovereign platform, we are now able to offer a range of cloud-based compute, storage and GPU services to meet our customers’ complex workload requirements.”

UKCloud is the only provider that specialises in public sector and healthcare, which offers Cloud GPU computing services with NVIDIA GPUs.

“The public sector is driving more complex computational and visualisation intensive workloads than ever before, not only for CAD development packages, but also for tasks like the simulation of infrastructure changes in transport, for genetic sequencing in health or for battlefield simulation in defence,” added Hansford.

Written from press release by Leah Alger

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The glittering awards ceremony will take place in October, Central London.

Meet Richard Hilsley – our judge from Aviva

Richard Hilsley, Director of Platforms and Engineering at Aviva, will be one of this year’s judges at the upcoming award ceremony.

When discussing his own DevOps journey, Hilsley said, “I’ve tended to be a big advocate and sponsor for DevOps adoption, to inspire change in teams and IT organisations as a whole”.

He went on to say, “I think that’s not always easy, because companies tend to not understand it. Organisation structures and operating models can make implementing DevOps difficult, and I’ve had to face these problems previously.”

When asked what he will be looking for in entrants, Hilsley said, “new ideas and ways of working that have broken with convention in some way, particularly where teams have had to demonstrate determination and resiliency.”

12 exciting categories to enter

You will be able to enter 12 different categories at The DevOps Industry Awards 2017, ranging from Best DevOps Automation Project to the DevOps Team of the Year.

If you work in a specific sector, then there are also categories reflecting the Best Overall DevOps Project in Finance, Retail, Gaming, Public Sector or Communication.

The DevOps Industry Awards are here to stay

Being launched this year, entries for the DevOps Industry Awards, which celebrates companies, individuals and teams who have accomplished significant achievements in the DevOps space, open on 1 March 2017.

As a judge at this year’s DevOps Industry Awards, Hilsley believes that awards ceremonies such as this one “raise awareness of the topic in a positive way, and it’ll inspire teams to not give up on something, that generally, is a very good thing. It also allows the industry to connect and share ideas – you need every bit of help you can get in IT nowadays, it’s a complicated industry.”

Entries need to be submitted by the 14^th of July 2017, and the winners will be announced at the Gala Dinner in October 2017.

Written by Jordan Platt.

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A recent guide was issued, outlining what department heads need to consider when putting services or data into the public cloud.

“It’s possible for public sector organisations to safely put highly personal and sensitive data into the public cloud. Many UK departments have made this decision based on risk management assessments once they have put appropriate safeguards in place,” the guidance says.

Public clouds are secure

The benefits of using public cloud solutions are touted in the guidelines, recognising the security budgets and expertise in the private sector.

“Cloud providers have a significant budget to maintain, patch and secure their cloud infrastructure. This means public cloud services can mitigate many common risks that often pose challenges for government organisations,” the document says.

Government users are advised that while the core principles of risk management are the same for the cloud or on-premise systems, there are considerable differences in the technical and assurance details.

“With cloud services, you need to take a shared approach to responsibility…[And] you should understand how responsibility for security is shared between you and the cloud provider. Where appropriate you should layer security controls on top of those built into the cloud services you are using.”

Government departments are also encouraged to turn to vendors for their expertise, and “apply your provider’s cloud security best practices and ask them for guidance on how to provide the best data protection for your users.”

Data protection

The official government guideline acknowledges that in general, large cloud service providers have experience with the legal requirements to consider when adopting cloud services, for example, the Data Protection Act and the EU Data Protection Directive.

Public sector departments can take advantage of “standard contractual terms that can help you meet your responsibilities.”

The internet is OK

James Stewart, Director of Technical Architecture and Head of Technology at the Government Digital Service, indicated in a blog post entitled ‘The internet is ok’ that the PSN would be discontinued. He said the government is “on a journey away from the PSN”.

“Of course, it’s not going to happen immediately,” he said. “Organisations that need to access services that are only available on the PSN will still need to connect to it for the time being.”

Edited from sources by Cecilia Rehn.

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The Crown Commercial Service

G-Cloud is a service provided by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), which acts on behalf of the Crown to drive savings for the taxpayer and improve the quality of commercial and procurement activity.

Software and Internet of Things (IoT)

Infostretch’s services for software and Internet of Things (IoT) development and testing can now be used by organisations across the UK public sector including central government, local government, health, education, devolved administrations, emergency services, defence and not-for-profit organisations. Specifically, Infostretch is approved to supply eight services: User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Automation Testing, Functional Testing, Internet of Things (IoT) Testing, DevOps Strategy and Implementation, Security Testing, Mobile Testing and Performance Testing.

“With our acceptance onto the G-Cloud 8 Framework, we look forward to working with more UK public sector organisations,” said Manish Mistry, VP of UK Operations. “We are able to offer the UK public sector the tools and expertise necessary for developing, testing and integrating future-ready mobile, web and IoT technologies and connecting them with the enterprise systems that make them work.”

Edited from press release by Jordan Platt.

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Despite total sales on the government’s G-Cloud Digital Marketplace reaching £1.39bn, recent research has shown that over half (58%) of public sector IT executives have not used G-Cloud in the past year.

Driving digitisation in public services

Although the government is aiming to drive digitisation in public services through the G-Cloud framework, public sector IT leaders are still missing the opportunity to use the system to innovate through key digital initiatives, such as cloud adoption and big data projects. In fact, despite rating digital transformation as the top challenge facing their organisations over the next year, only 8% of executives have used the digital marketplace more than five times in the last year.

These are among the findings of research into the state of public sector technology and use of the digital framework, carried out by British cloud and network provider Exponential-e. The study queried IT professionals across the UK, covering local and central government, health, emergency services, education and the third sector.

The implementation of digital systems

Public sector organisations are increasingly viewing the implementation of new digital systems as a key objective to help boost efficiency and improve services. The majority of IT executives (57%) rate digital transformation as being of considerable or high importance for their organisation. Over half (54%) also view compliance and security as a matter of importance, indicating that the need to improve data handling practices is an essential element of digitisation for public sector IT teams. However, only around a quarter (27%) indicate cloud adoption as an important challenge for the next year.

“Many public sector organisations are missing the opportunity which cloud provides to cost-effectively support innovative digital transformation initiatives,” said David Lozdan, head of public sector at Exponential-e.  “According to government data, out of the £1.39 billion total sales since the launch of G-Cloud, central government departments have been responsible for £1.06 billion, compared with only £73 million from local authorities and £245 million from the wider public sector. In order for these organisations to achieve their digitisation goals, there is clearly a gap to be filled when it comes to engaging within the G-Cloud framework to access secure, flexible cloud services capable of servicing the sector’s growing needs.”

A third (33%) of respondents also indicated that concerns over data sovereignty would stop them from using public cloud services as part of a digital transformation programme. This issue is particularly pressing given the uncertainty of the UK’s political status following its decision to exit the European Union, with 41% of public sector IT executives believing that Brexit will have a significant impact on their organisation.

“With questions over what Brexit means for the future of UK still looming large, data protection regulation is set to become increasingly complex as the government negotiates the departure. As such, it’s essential that public sector organisations carefully consider how their IT services are provisioned and take advantage of the flexibility, accreditations and quality assurance available within the Digital Marketplace,” concluded Lozdan.

Edited from press release by Jordan Platt.

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