Updated 1819 GMT: Earlier this morning the UK government confirmed the fifth iteration of the G-Cloud cloud store was open, with 1132 suppliers making the cut and 1518 in total.

The list of suppliers for G-Cloud 5 was revealed at the end of last week, with plans to go live on Friday but for last minute bug fixes, as an official blog post confirmed.

CloudStore is open. http://t.co/MAHjtNA9dp There are now 1518 suppliers (885 SMEs) with over 17,000 services available.

— G-Cloud (@G_Cloud_UK) May 27, 2014

The latest round of procurement for G-Cloud had opened at the end of February, with Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude aiming at the time for a further £100m to be spent through the platform by May 2015 and outlining the various opportunities provided to small, innovative IT suppliers.

Yet a lot of the time the UK’s government cloud initiative has had a relatively difficult existence, with plenty of column inches in this publication devoted to the issues it faces, chief of which is education.

According to Eduserv’s Ivan Harris, writing in March, even if there are 30,000 potential buyers the “relatively low volume of business reflects a set of buyers which has yet to really fully grasp the potential for cloud services and how to procure them.”

For Eduserv, itself a G-Cloud 5 supplier, it’s evidently made their lives easier.

“Although there is invariably additional procurement work to be done, there is no doubt that G-Cloud has made it easier us to sell our services to government,” Eduserv told CloudTech. “As the cloud agenda gets more traction with the broader public sector, being on G-Cloud 5 and 6 gives us access to an even wider pool of buyers than its previous iterations.”

However even with all the investment and innovation in the world, without education the process will fail. The investment and innovation is certainly there, with a proposed Digital Marketplace, aiming to be more of a one-stop shop for procuring UK cloud services, reaching alpha status in March with Eduserv working closely in the beta programme.

G-Cloud programme director Tony Singleton spelled it out in a blog post last week referencing what he said at the Public Sector Show: “I have heard it said that G-Cloud has become business as usual,” he began. “How I dislike that phrase…it suggest[s] to me that it’s job done, sit back, put your feet up.

“No, it is not business as usual – there is much to be done in transforming the way IT is not only bought but also consumed across the wider public sector.”

Peter Groucutt is managing director of Databarracks, also a G-Cloud 5 supplier. He agrees more knowledge is required but urges continued technological advances.

“It’s great to see these changes happening,” he said. “Now the key is to ensure a continued level of improvement across all areas of the framework.

“Education is still seen as the biggest barrier to cloud adoption by the public sector,” he continued. “More needs to be done by central government to educate local authorities and councils on the benefits of buying services through the framework.”

For Ian Moyse, sales director of CRM provider Workbooks, there’s a problem of central government and local government not singing off the same hymn sheet when it comes to ‘cloud-first’ policy.

“Whilst central government is mandated to be cloud first and to lead with G-Cloud suppliers, local government can do as they choose and still are more often led by a bias towards the old on-network world of doing it themselves, not efficient spend of public money or following the government lead for cloud first,” he told CloudTech.

Workbooks, which has been certified in all five rounds of G-Cloud, notes the validation of its business by having the official government stamp.

“As a British hosted, developed and founded cloud business [we] feel it validates the clarity we give on data security and sovereignty to the public sector, who are obliged to do the best by the general public and their data held,” Moyse said.

After a US judge recently ordered Microsoft to give up overseas cloud data, this is an especially prevalent discussion. “We still do find customers asking how US hosted providers remain included and approved in light of recent very public data rulings on US providers no matter where they host data,” Moyse added.

The overall consensus is still one of potential rather than any tangible success, with a leap of faith in terms of customer buy in forthcoming, according to Eduserv.

“It’s now time to ’cross the chasm’ and capture the early majority in both central government and the wider public sector,” Eduserv said. “This will require significant inspiration and perspiration to raise awareness, build understanding and solve real business challenges if the government’s cloud first initiative is going to be truly successful.”

Groucutt argued similarly. “Making G-Cloud really work is a big task, but it’s encouraging to see that steps are being taken to address the quick wins like ‘search’ that will deliver big impact quickly,” he said. “The framework is maturing and both customers and suppliers are beginning to see the benefits.

“It’s still very much a learning process and further investment is needed to break down the last remaining barriers.”

Take a look at the full G-Cloud 5 supplier list here.