John Suffolk, the Government CIO, has confirmed his resignation from the post effective before the end of the year. Suffolk has held the post for the past four years, and replaced the first Government CIO Ian Watmore.

It’s reported his resignation was first announced internally at the Cabinet Office, but Suffolk later confirmed his intentions to investigative journalist, Tony Collins. On his blog, Collins quotes the outgoing CIO as saying, “Just under 5 years is a good stint ...time to pass the baton on and give the new Government a clear run on new policies, new strategies and new people. It’s been truly great working with Francis Maude. His agenda is my agenda and reverse. He will drive it [major reform] forward.”

Whitehall sources were today talking up Andrew Stott, director of digital engagement and Suffolk's former deputy, as a likely replacement. Stott retires next month from his current role and worked with Watmore during his time as CIO. "[Suffolk's] replacement is likely to be an ally of Ian Watmore, who was brought in to head up the Cabinet Office’s influential Efficiency and Reform Group in July," commented Tola Sergeant of TechMarketView. "The Government CIO now reports to Watmore, and the two will need to work increasingly closely together to push forward the new government’s agenda."

Suffolk was the key proponent of the Government Cloud, which featured in the Labour Government’s ICT Strategy at the start of the year. It’s well known the Cabinet Office is working on a new strategy backed by the coalition government, though it’s understood to remain largely similar to its predecessor aside from extra provisions for open source software.

In recent weeks Andy Tait, deputy director on the G-Cloud programme, described the initiative as the “biggest transformation for public sector ICT in the past 20 years,” and reaffirmed that the G-Cloud was definitely coming. He later confirmed to delegates at Socitm’s conference in Brighton the programme had yet to receive the green light from the Cabinet Office.

Source: http://www.publictechnology.net/sector/central-gov/suffolk-resigns-government-cio-post