A tender to provide cloud computing services as part of the Government's G-Cloud has attracted 380 bids, according to the programme's director.
The 60 million tender was announced last month after the Government published its Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) for its new ICT strategy first revealed in March this year.
The Guardian reported the Government's chief information officer (CIO), Andy Nelson, claiming between 250 to 300 bids had been made, but Chris Chant, director of the G-Cloud programme, told Cloud Pro the total had actually reached 380.
With exactly two weeks to go until the bidding process closes, Chant has been encouraging small and medium businesses (SMBs) to put themselves forward for the contracts.
In a blog last week, the senior civil servant admitted it was a slow process to get Whitehall to accept this new way of thinking looking to SMBs for IT offerings rather than larger legacy firms but, despite the change not happening "overnight" he said it was "unacceptable for things to remain the same."
We will just have to wait and see who the winners are
