The erstwhile head of the government’s G-Cloud service, Denise McDonagh, has confirmed her departure from the programme, which is moving to the auspices of the Government Digital Services (GDS) group.

McDonagh, who took charge of the G-Cloud programme last April, said the service would “forever change the way we commission and use IT in the public sector”.

“I can now hand over G-Cloud to GDS, safe in the knowledge that we have started such a groundswell of support and momentum for change that G-Cloud is here to stay,” she wrote on a G-Cloud blog.

“This has been the most enjoyable roller-coaster ride ever.”

G-Cloud has become a critical part of the government’s IT strategy, and is touted as the best way of procuring IT services cheaply, without getting tied into multi-year, multi-million pound contracts. It has also been heralded as the best way to open up public sector contracts to small and medium IT suppliers.

The service was the brainchild of Chris Chant, who spent more than three decades wrangling with the labyrinthine nature of Whitehall IT. Chant took to Twitter on Tuesday to sing the praises of the G-Cloud team.

Nonetheless, despite the upbeat tone to McDonagh’s announcement, there is plenty of work to be done before G-Cloud comes anywhere close to attaining its goal of changing public sector IT procurement. According to McDonagh, as of April 2013, a paltry £22m had been spent via G-Cloud, a drop in the ocean of government IT spend.

Earlier this week, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude labelled the service “under used”.

McDonagh will revert to her role as IT director at the Home Office, a position she held in addition to overseeing G-Cloud.