Deputy Gov CIO promises to improve G-Cloud accreditation processes

Speaking at the Business Cloud Summit this week in London, Maxwell said: "One of the things I'm taking most seriously is the view that it takes so long to accredit. I give you a commitment, probably in about two or three months, we will have a more streamlined, more effective, accreditation scheme, which helps people get there."

The government recently released the second iteration of its G-Cloud framework, which has 458 suppliers offering a variety of services to the public sector, all of which are available through an online portal called 'CloudStore'. The government plans to accredit each service offered only once and then any government body can reuse that service without going through the accreditation process again.

However, the process of getting accredited is perceived to be difficult and lengthy, where only a handful of suppliers have so far been successful.

Maxwell explained that the G-Cloud team is working closely with the national technical authority for information assurance, CESG, on ensuring that this process is improved.

"We do need to have a certain level of security, but we are reviewing this. Our security model will be based more around the user needs - rather than the six or seven layers that we have had before," he said.