Loudcloud wins UK gov online deal

NEWS Loudcloud has won an outsourcing deal with ukonline.gov.uk, the government department attempting to get Britain fully wired by 2005. The Office of the e-envoy, which is responsible for pushing forward the government's plan for a wired Britain, is handing over its internet operations to Marc Andreesen's Loudcloud. ukonline.gov.uk was launched as a pilot programme last December and now gets around one million hits per week. It is billed as a 'one stop shop' for anything to do with government and has moved into its version two phase which combined with the Loudcloud deal should allow it to utilise other technologies for further improvement of the service.