Since 2017, the federal government has pledged a “Cloud-first” approach to technology adoption, and many state and local agencies have followed suit. A cloud-first strategy is an organizational commitment to consider the cloud before any other solution. It applies to both optimizing IT spend and launching new projects for:
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Generally, this means that as on-premise systems become outdated, they are replaced by newer cloud solutions. Unlike a cloud-only strategy, cloud-first does not eliminate other solutions, allowing for greater flexibility.
Read to learn about the benefits of cloud computing in the public sector.
Benefits of Cloud-First Strategy in Government
Traditional, on-premise software is expensive to maintain, difficult to scale, and does not easily integrate with modern SaaS applications. By contrast, cloud-based solutions reduce complexity, which accelerates transformation and adoption.
- Improve citizen experience. Citizens are coming to demand the same digital services from their government as they experience in the private sector. The cloud helps you keep pace with these demands. It also enhances business agility and enables you to change your tech infrastructure when needed to easily achieve your customer relationship goals.
- Boost flexibility. The cloud scales more easily than on-site equipment, storage, or software. You can scale up and down as needed, giving you exactly the technology you need when you need it.
- Reduce costs. Cloud solutions are constantly updated, so you run the most up-to-date technology and avoid repurchases. It’s also possible to budget cloud costs as operational expenses rather than capital expenses, which may make budgeting easier.
- Enhance security. It is a myth that moving to the cloud means compromising security. On the contrary, the cloud is more secure than on-premise because it is in a data center with the highest physical and virtual security levels. According to CIO.com, “A proper cloud-first deployment truly allows for security by design, instead of the typical enterprise approach today, where security has evolved as an afterthought.”
- Drive employee performance. When data is stored in the cloud, employees can manage tasks and be productive anywhere—in the office, at home, on the road, or from their mobile devices. Should your local network go down, your employees can shift to a new venue and continue working.
We are Committed to Your Cloud-First Strategy.
All of our technology partners have cloud, on-premise, and hybrid options. In addition, we have built our own managed cloud offering to ensure we can meet all security and compliance requirements. We rely on this flexibility to recommend the right approach based on our client‘s desired business outcomes.
Let’s chat about how you can use cloud offerings to boost efficiency and further your organization’s mission.
