AWS profits

[eek]

points out where, exactly??

Good point - shall I just say I know what Chris uses....

[ladymuck]

Ok, so no-one cares about data sovereignty but do you also not care that the terms of a contract of this size and importance were so bad that only one company was willing to bid?

[malvolio]

Ok, so no-one cares about data sovereignty but do you also not care that the terms of a contract of this size and importance were so bad that only one company was willing to bid?

I worked on many Government ITTs across a range of services from single offices to whole departments. Every one of them had a couple of sections containing a long list of highly specific performance targets with scaled penalties for failing to meet them. Since most were either impractical or simply unmeasurable, we had to no bid on the majority. The business risk/reward ratio was just too poor to consider them.

[ladymuck]

I worked on many Government ITTs across a range of services from single offices to whole departments. Every one of them had a couple of sections containing a long list of highly specific performance targets with scaled penalties for failing to meet them. Since most were either impractical or simply unmeasurable, we had to no bid on the majority. The business risk/reward ratio was just too poor to consider them.

I can understand that happening. The government / civil service has no contract negotiation skills and a one size fits all approach to drawing up terms.

[tazdevil]

I can understand that happening. The government / civil service has no contract negotiation skills and a one size fits all approach to drawing up terms.

There was a time when we invested in our own infrastructure and I can't believe we've lost the skills to still do so

That's why I said that. If we spent less on getting outside shonky doing the business we could invest more on inside shonky and perhaps get more for our money and systems that fit the requirement.

A long time ago in the 1950's the government built its own data centres and trained its own developers. They had to go to civil servants and ask if they wanted to be this new thing called a programmer. Wonderful things ensued, technology was pushed forward and we produced people with newly required skills. Now we've abdicated that to buying everything, normally from abroad, at great cost to both our current and future prosperity

[Protagoras]

It would make sense for UK Gov to setup an internal consultancy covering strategy to development and operations.

This would, of course, require significant investment but it should be possible to save a lot of money in the long run if done properly as well as providing jobs for people.

Is Govt even interested in sovereignty, data or otherwise?

[anonymouse]

It would make sense for UK Gov to setup an internal consultancy covering strategy to development and operations.

This would, of course, require significant investment but it should be possible to save a lot of money in the long run if done properly as well as providing jobs for people.

Is Govt even interested in sovereignty, data or otherwise?

The government did have such a department, it was called ITSA, it was given to HP. For HMRC to rebuild a mainframe team, they needed to know what courses were required and who could provide such training, because they didn't know.

[Protagoras]

For HMRC to rebuild a mainframe team, they needed to know what courses were required and who could provide such training, because they didn't know.

Blimey, that would suggest a complete loss of understanding of their tech!
How might one even attain that level of complacency ...

[anonymouse]

Blimey, that would suggest a complete loss of understanding of their tech!
How might one even attain that level of complacency ...

Simple, because it's old tech mainframe, just ignore it. By the next time it comes round again, everybody has moved on. Rinse and repeat.