Europe’s love affair with open-source?

[Abarbarian]

And why haven’t we seen the same thing in the U.S.?

Government IT departments in Europe, over the past several years, have been eager to trumpet their interest in open-source software – and have been backing their interest up with action. Open-source has become a matter of national policy in the U.K., a critical part of the infrastructure at the European Commission, and the standard for the city of Munich.

Despite the fact that government agencies on this side of the Atlantic are also quietly using more and more open-source software, however, it’s not the hot topic that it is in Europe, and nor is it even a minor political issue stateside.

German Government Chooses Open Source For Its Federal Cloud Solution

Talking about the numbers, about 300,000 people in different government agencies and ministries will use the Nextcloud-powered federal cloud. As per a report from Speigel, Nextcloud has also been granted a seven-figure sum for support services.

It’s worth noting that the new cloud is completely compliant with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It’s an important aspect in the wake of recent Facebook leak reports.

Germany says No to Public Cloud, Chooses Nextcloud's Open Source Solution

Germany's Federal Information Technology Centre (ITZBund) opts for an on-premise cloud solution which unlike those fancy Public cloud solutions, is completely private and under its direct control.

An what do we have in this country ? Yes thats right a total mess, loads of different paid for suppliers that will cost you the tax payer loads of loot today and tomorrow and for ever. Oh and as there are so many suppliers you can forget about how secure all that sensitive information will be.


UK Government G-Cloud

The UK Government G-Cloud is an initiative targeted at easing procurement by public-sector bodies in departments of the United Kingdom Government of commodity information technology services that use cloud computing.[1] The G-Cloud consists of:

• A series of framework agreements with suppliers, from which public sector organisations can buy services without needing to run a full tender or competition procurement process
• An online store – the "Digital Marketplace" (previously "CloudStore") that allows public sector bodies to search for services that are covered by the G-Cloud frameworks

The service began in 2012, and had several calls for contracts.[2] By May 2013 there were over 700 suppliers—over 80% of which were small and medium enterprises.[3] £18.2 million (US$27.7 million) of sales were made by April 2013.[4] With the adoption of Cloud First policy in UK in late February 2014 [5] the sales have continued to grow, reportedly hitting over £50M in February 2014.[6] These are based on procurement of some 1,200 providers and 13,000 services, including both cloud services and (professional) specialist services as of November 2013.[7]

I am no fan of the Germans. However this move of theirs is definitely 1,000,000 % better than the mess dreamed up by our idiot government.