Credit: Pixabay [1]

The eleventh iteration of the G-Cloud framework is to feature about 4,200 suppliers, with the amount of services on offer to exceed 30,000.

Newly published GOV.UK figures [2] show that 4,222 firms completed an application during the bidding process [3] for G-Cloud 11, which ran from 25 March to 22 May. On previous versions, virtually all firms who submitted a completed bid were awarded a spot on the framework. For G-Cloud 10, only seven of the 3,505 applicants missed out, while just nine of the 2,856 outfits that bid for a place on G-Cloud 9 were unsuccessful. 

The framework went live today and included a reported 4,200 firms - nine in 10 of which are SMEs, according to Crown Commercial Service.

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Niall Quinn, director of technology at CCS, said: "G-Cloud continues to be a major success story for how we drive innovation in the public sector. G-Cloud is all about simplicity, making it as straightforward as possible for customers and suppliers to find each other."

Between them, the featured suppliers will offer a cumulative total of about 31,100 services across the framework, which is split into three lots covering software, support, and hosting offerings. This represents a rise of almost a quarter on the 25,000 that were offered via G-Cloud 10 [7].

The number of cloud-hosting services has seen the biggest comparative level of growth, increasing from 3,194 to 4,304. The amount of cloud software options available on G-Cloud 11 will be 9,672, up from 8,015 on the previous iteration. The number of cloud support services listed has risen by 3,400, taking the total number to 17,100.

CCS is currently developing a separate framework [8] for cloud hosting services, to be launched next year. The agreement is likely to feature no more than 1,000 suppliers across three lots, covering large hyperscale hosting, smaller environments, and related services.

Once that framework has launched, the procurement agency will look to develop another new vehicle for machine learning, artificial intelligence, analytics, robotics, and automation technologies. 

For both the cloud hosting framework and the AI and automation deal, the plan is that services will initially remain on both G-Cloud and the new agreements. But, ultimately, the goal is for the specialised deals to serve these areas exclusively.