ITNet wins £83m Cabinet Office deal

ITNet has won an £83m contract to consolidate hosting and management of the three main IT building blocks underpinning the UK's e-government strategy.

The operations were previously managed by Cable & Wireless and Netscape co-founder Marc Andreesen's start-up Loudcloud, whose hosting operation was bought by EDS last year. A government spokeswoman confirmed ITNet would be taking over from the two companies.

As part of the five-year deal, ITNet will be responsible for hosting and managing authentication and routing service the Government Gateway, the information sharing Knowledge Network and the content management system Delivering on the Promise.

The move is described by the Cabinet Office as being "cost-effective" and replaces the separate agreements C&W and Loudcloud.

Douglas Alexander, minister for e-transformation at the Cabinet Office, said in a statement: "The Government has a target to get all services online by 2005, achieving high levels of use in key services. Resilient, flexible solutions like the Data Centre Hosting Project will provide the fundamental infrastructure to help us achieve this."

The contract, which has provision for a two-year extension, is ITNet's largest ever win and its first in central government.

Bridget Blow, CEO of ITNet, said in a statement: "We are very pleased to be signing this important contract with the Cabinet Office. The Data Centre Hosting Project will consolidate existing resources, thereby increasing efficiency, security and laying solid foundations for future expansion and change."