Cloud computing

"The council is considering buying computer applications as services (per transaction) rather than buying, hosting and managing software"

Cloud computing enables software to be purchased as a service ("Software as a Service" (SaaS)), paid for on a per-transaction basis, and sourced over the internet. In its current form, there are significant security issues - about where the data centres are physically located, who can access the data, how secure it is from hackers, etc - but the launch of the first phase of the Public Services Network (PSN) in 2010 will provide a secure network within which public sector coloud computing options will become more practicable.

In the extreme, a council which chooses to do so could reach the point that it hosts no applications locally - hence has no significant investment in servers for data storage or for applications, and its only network requirement is to provide secure access for all desktop systems to the internet. The focus of such councils then is more clearly on its information assets and the use of such assets to deliver services, and less on procurement and management of large and resource-demanding applications.