FCO Services, a trading fund of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, has unveiled a new service that will bring Microsoft online offerings to the public sector via a secure private cloud.
The offering, dubbed PSN360, includes Office365, Exchange, SharePoint, Dynamics, Lync, and mail.
It is hosted by FCO Services and delivered securely over the Government Secure Internet (GSI) or Public Services Network (PSN).
All products are internally accredited up to Impact Level 3 (IL3) by FCO Services, and Pan-Government Accreditation up to IL3 is in the process of being awarded.
It is also aligned with the Government’s G-Cloud and end user device strategies, it is claimed.
Chris Moxey, chief executive of FCO Services, said: “PSN360 represents an exciting innovation that reduces costs through shared services and collaborative working across government and the wider public sector.
“As an established cloud services provider, we’ve designed PSN360 with security at its heart. We’re offering the familiarity of Microsoft productivity and office solutions with government grade security.”
Nicola Hodson, general manager for public sector at Microsoft, said the offering had been developed to provide users with the ability to collaborate securely no matter where they are.
“Accredited private cloud services are still rare among large IT suppliers but by working with FCO Services we’re able to bring Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Dynamics and Lync to the G-Cloud with IL3 certification.
“This means public sector bodies can use business critical programmes in a highly secure manner, protecting sensitive data and information,” she added.
PSN360 is available immediately through the G-Cloud CloudStore.
