The GDS was very clear that Cloud First was intended purely for public cloud and not for community, hybrid, or private cloud deployment models. “There are circumstances where the other deployment models are appropriate but the primary benefits for government come when we embrace the public cloud,” it stated. The GDS encouraged departments to consider Software as a Service (SaaS) models, particularly for enterprise IT and back office functions, and to make use of public cloud hosting if bespoke development was necessary.