G-Hosting will allow the public sector to place complex applications into highly virtualised, shared environments within selected suppliers' data centres.

Both frameworks are set to be launched on 30th May, with spend on the G-Cloud expected to reach £250 million by 2015 and spend on G-Hosting to reach £470 million by 2016.

The G-Hosting framework is being put in place to support the public sector where the G-Cloud framework does not suffice - specifically with complex hosting requirements for legacy systems.

The Cabinet Office has said that there is a need to provide government departments with suppliers that offer hosting capabilities, as there are a number of complicated legacy applications across the public sector that would benefit from a shared services environment.

Ian Brown, senior analyst at Ovum, explained that the G-Hosting framework will be used for government applications that can't be replaced by easy-to-implement public cloud solutions provided through the CloudStore.