The need for greater interoperability, better security and cost-efficiency is attracting UK public administrations to a much wider use of Open Source Software (OSS).

Indeed, OSS has several characteristics that fit particularly well the needs of public sector administrations:

Lower the cost of Ownership: allowing organisations to share software and know-how and re-use it to build solutions adapted to their needs.

Open Standards: It can ensure adherence to open standards, thus improving interoperability and equal access to public sector information and service.

Interoperability: the ability of public sector administrations to communicate easily with their counterparts across the country and with citizens and business.

Innovation: rather than simply dictating a solution, Open Source solutions give customers the tools to innovate.

Your benefits with Red Hat

• Deploy one standard system on servers of any size, for scaling up and scaling out.
• Configure your IT infrastructure dynamically, based on the needs of your business moment to moment.
• Shift expenditures from procuring and managing complex infrastructure to projects that really matter to your organisation.
• Upgrade performance, security, manageability, and interoperability - without having to acquire additional resources.

24th February 2009 - UK Government/Open Source - New Policy (click to read more)