Viglen strengthens its presence on the Government’s G-Cloud 4 Framework

Viglen, a British IT company, has strengthened its presence on the Government Procurement Service (GPS) G-Cloud 4 Framework, supplying government IT departments within Lot 1, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Lot 3, Software as a Service (SaaS) and Lot 4, Specialist Cloud Services (SCS) - allowing public sector organisations to procure IT services more efficiently.  

The framework is split into four lots and was open to companies from all over Europe through an OJEU (Official Journal of the European Union) tender. G-Cloud 4 attracted a record number of submissions from suppliers.

Working alongside G-Cloud III and 4 accredited platform provider iomart Group plc, Viglen successfully bid for three lots, retaining the place it held in Cloud III in Lot 1 under which it will offer storage and VM platforms, and Lot 3, covering back up, email archiving, email filtering, VMware view and web filtering. 

Viglen was also successful in its bid for Lot 4, specialist cloud services, with an offering specifically aimed at the education sector, VigCloud. VigCloud provides a central learning platform enabling collaboration between students and teachers anywhere, anytime. With the stability of the Microsoft Office 365 platform at the centre of VigCloud, education establishments can concentrate on raising teaching and learning standards, rather than spending time maintaining an on-premise server and software infrastructure.

Viglen’s partner, iomart Group plc, is one of Europe’s leading cloud computing companies and has been listed on AIM (the London Stock Exchange’s international market for smaller, growing companies) since 2000.  It is one of the UK’s most widely respected hosting companies, specialising in the delivery and management of bespoke mission-critical private and hybrid cloud and managed IT infrastructures as well as providing cloud storage, backup and security solutions.   

Commenting on Viglen’s inclusion in the framework, chief executive Bordan Tkachuk said: “This expansion of our already strong presence in the CloudStore and adding new products and services such as VigCloud, is a great demonstration of our commitment to providing government with the right tools to help it become more agile, flexible and responsive to the public’s needs.

“CloudStore is contributing to significant cost savings for its users, making the purchasing of services quicker, easier, cheaper and more transparent for the public sector and suppliers alike, so we are delighted to have this opportunity to stay involved.”

G-Cloud 4 went live in October as the fourth iteration of the UK government cloud – a stream-lined procurement process designed to allow the public sector to buy cloud-based services off the shelf, avoiding lock-in to expensive contracts with single suppliers and encouraging cost-effective, innovative solutions.

G-Cloud suppliers and their services are listed in an online catalogue called the CloudStore, so doing away with the need for a lengthy tendering process. The difference between G-Cloud and other frameworks is that users do not have to purchase hardware and software licenses, instead paying only for cloud-based services when and if they use them. 

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