NetApp: Public sector must follow businesses to cloud

The public sector will have to embrace a business attitude if it is going to make a success of cloud computing, according to a NetApp executive.

In a meeting with IT PRO, Paul Wooding, head of Public Sector for NetApp in the UK, described how the public sector is too protective of its IT systems at the moment to fully embrace cloud computing.

He said: "There is too much personality. When people build something up they then have the attitude that it is 'my baby' and want ownership of it."

Wooding said this attitude needs to go, and public organisations must instead embrace a business ethos of getting the most out of a system for the least cost.

He said: "We have made the move towards shared services, we now need to move towards cloud computing. There are too many separate IT departments [which could be consolidated]. Their IT guys are only too happy to make the move, if it is their department that becomes the hub."

"Of course it will lead to redundancies and that is a political gamble, but it would easily reduce costs and increase efficiency if the government really took up the cloud."

He cited an example from Ealing Council which cut IT costs, leading to a reduction in council tax for their residents - although it did also lead to several redundancies.

Wooding also said there are too many consultants in civil service IT that don't always have the best intentions at heart.

He said: "We need intelligent customers in the civil service and to get rid of these cowboys whose job it is purely to sell."

"Architects are responsible for life for the structures they build, ensuring they won't fall down, and if they do, they suffer the consequences. Why should IT architects be any different? They should be responsible and then we would only get what we need."