7 ms·

AWS has a G-Cloud for UK just like they have one for US, no?

snoman 3y ago
AWS has government specific regions (called GovCloud). Many services or features make it to GovCloud later than other regions because of the certification requirements.
travem 3y ago
AWS has US based GovCloud regions: AWS GovCloud (US-East) and AWS GovCloud (US-West). It does not have a UK specific GovCloud region that I am aware of.
bboygravity 3y ago
Why can't the UK government build there own cloud? It's just completely insane to me that they would make the gov internet infrastructure completely (geopolitically) dependent on another country AND just literally give all their (citizens') data away AND pay for that "privilege"?! I mean if the government can't host the government's websites using tech from the government's country, maybe it would be better to just forget about the whole cyberweb thing altogether? Just turn it off?
- robertlagrant 3y ago
  They'd still be outsourcing to a firm to do this. They wouldn't hire a load of people to do it in-house. See also Fujitsu in the recently-popular Horizon scandal, or the NHS for IT debacle[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Connecting_for_Health https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Connecting_for_Health
- vdaea 3y ago
  Why should they build their own cloud, seeing that costs more money?
- ris 3y ago
  I don't think you have any idea just how much it costs to run infrastructure at the reliability levels provided by AWS, and just how much investment it would require to get the ball rolling on this. A lot of people have a very unrealistic picture of what government budgets are like.
  - blibble 3y ago
    > I don't think you have any idea just how much it costs to run infrastructure at the reliability levels provided by AWS my $12/year VPS does better than us-east-1
    - hdlothia 3y ago
      Where do you get a 12 dollar a year vps. Hetzner charges me 4 bucks a month and it feels like a steal
      - blibble 3y ago
        https://lowendtalk.com/ https://lowendtalk.com/ quality varies
  - bboygravity 3y ago
    I get that it costs a lot. My point is that NOT hosting it yourself (as a government) costs WAY more in the long run. See my points above. The same goes for companies in Europe who literally host their trade-secrets (designs, sales, the entire company) on US-servers (OneDrive, Google Drive, etc). The US is the home of their competitors. Who cares about infrastructure costs if you're PAYING to give your trade secrets away to your competitor(s)?!
- willsmith72 3y ago
  you want every government to build their own cloud? what in the world? the whole world is interlinked, should they also manufacture their own government laptops in the UK?
- shagmin 3y ago
  I've always wondered how beholden the world is to Microsoft. I was once surprised to learn the US military (and probably virtually all others) don't have their own OS to avoid being tied to a particular company.
- 0xbadcafebee 3y ago
  Why can't the UK government build their own cars? Their own boots? Their own pens, paper? How wasteful and pathetic that they wouldn't make all those things themselves. If it's possible to do it yourself, by golly, you should do it yourself, and there's absolutely no reason in the entire world to purchase those things from someone else instead.
  - bboygravity 3y ago
    By that reasoning: why not just outsource the entire UK government to some low income countries while you're at it? I mean I'm sure Xi or any other president would be happy to govern the UK in exchange for a small fee? Much more cost effective! I'm sure the Chinese would also be more than happy to build the UK's roads and (government) buildings at a great discount. You still don't see my point? We're talking essential infrastructure and Geo-politically highly sensitive data.
- kakoni 3y ago
  You know that UK's National Health Service did a deal with Palantir for "federated data platform"?
NomDePlum 3y ago
No. It is only relatively recently (~5/6 years) AWS have had any data centres in the UK. That blocked use of AWS for a lot of UK departments due to data sovereignty concerns.
- kunwon1 3y ago
  I see. I don't use AWS much, I saw this [1] and assumed this was like the US g-cloud. [1] https://aws.amazon.com/government-education/g-cloud-uk/ https://aws.amazon.com/government-education/g-cloud-uk/

AWS has government specific regions (called GovCloud). Many services or features make it to GovCloud later than other regions because of the certification requirements.

travem 3y ago

AWS has US based GovCloud regions: AWS GovCloud (US-East) and AWS GovCloud (US-West). It does not have a UK specific GovCloud region that I am aware of.

bboygravity 3y ago

Why can't the UK government build there own cloud? It's just completely insane to me that they would make the gov internet infrastructure completely (geopolitically) dependent on another country AND just literally give all their (citizens') data away AND pay for that "privilege"?! I mean if the government can't host the government's websites using tech from the government's country, maybe it would be better to just forget about the whole cyberweb thing altogether? Just turn it off?

robertlagrant 3y ago
They'd still be outsourcing to a firm to do this. They wouldn't hire a load of people to do it in-house. See also Fujitsu in the recently-popular Horizon scandal, or the NHS for IT debacle[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Connecting_for_Health https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Connecting_for_Health
vdaea 3y ago
Why should they build their own cloud, seeing that costs more money?
ris 3y ago
I don't think you have any idea just how much it costs to run infrastructure at the reliability levels provided by AWS, and just how much investment it would require to get the ball rolling on this. A lot of people have a very unrealistic picture of what government budgets are like.
- blibble 3y ago
  > I don't think you have any idea just how much it costs to run infrastructure at the reliability levels provided by AWS my $12/year VPS does better than us-east-1
  - hdlothia 3y ago
    Where do you get a 12 dollar a year vps. Hetzner charges me 4 bucks a month and it feels like a steal
    - blibble 3y ago
      https://lowendtalk.com/ https://lowendtalk.com/ quality varies
- bboygravity 3y ago
  I get that it costs a lot. My point is that NOT hosting it yourself (as a government) costs WAY more in the long run. See my points above. The same goes for companies in Europe who literally host their trade-secrets (designs, sales, the entire company) on US-servers (OneDrive, Google Drive, etc). The US is the home of their competitors. Who cares about infrastructure costs if you're PAYING to give your trade secrets away to your competitor(s)?!
willsmith72 3y ago
you want every government to build their own cloud? what in the world? the whole world is interlinked, should they also manufacture their own government laptops in the UK?
shagmin 3y ago
I've always wondered how beholden the world is to Microsoft. I was once surprised to learn the US military (and probably virtually all others) don't have their own OS to avoid being tied to a particular company.
0xbadcafebee 3y ago
Why can't the UK government build their own cars? Their own boots? Their own pens, paper? How wasteful and pathetic that they wouldn't make all those things themselves. If it's possible to do it yourself, by golly, you should do it yourself, and there's absolutely no reason in the entire world to purchase those things from someone else instead.
- bboygravity 3y ago
  By that reasoning: why not just outsource the entire UK government to some low income countries while you're at it? I mean I'm sure Xi or any other president would be happy to govern the UK in exchange for a small fee? Much more cost effective! I'm sure the Chinese would also be more than happy to build the UK's roads and (government) buildings at a great discount. You still don't see my point? We're talking essential infrastructure and Geo-politically highly sensitive data.
kakoni 3y ago
You know that UK's National Health Service did a deal with Palantir for "federated data platform"?

NomDePlum 3y ago

No. It is only relatively recently (~5/6 years) AWS have had any data centres in the UK. That blocked use of AWS for a lot of UK departments due to data sovereignty concerns.

kunwon1 3y ago
I see. I don't use AWS much, I saw this [1] and assumed this was like the US g-cloud. [1] https://aws.amazon.com/government-education/g-cloud-uk/ https://aws.amazon.com/government-education/g-cloud-uk/