Original post by Jonathan Moules via Financial Times

Huddle, a UK technology start-up, has formed a partnership with Whitehall’s senior security chiefs to make British civil servants among the first in the world to use cloud computing for work on classified government documents.

The deal with FCO Services, which built and manages the UK government’s secure private network, will enable civil servants across Whitehall to share policy documents and make changes online. Previously, such activity would have had to be done either by face-to-face meetings or by a back and forth e-mail exchange.

The adoption of cloud computing for the most senior levels of government decision-making puts the UK ahead of the US in its use of the technology and will help Huddle to sell its software service to other governments.

Cloud-based software has become popular in large IT departments because it is much cheaper to deploy than the traditional method of loading software on to individual computers.

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