Cloud Computing News #8: Cloud is the new normal for public sector

This week we focus on public cloud in the public sector.

5 reasons for public sector to move to cloud

According to GCN, government agencies across the globe are increasingly leveraging cloud computing in their business services and functions. The cloud can be a platform for constant and ongoing innovation within the public sector. It can deliver unique solutions to hard problems and presents an opportunity for substantial technology transformation.

GCN lists 5 reasons why public sector should leverage the cloud computing:

1. Boost innovation: Cloud native applications can leverage machine learning, burst compute that would be hard (if not impossible) to build and run inside a datacenter.
2. Leverage a rich portfolio of infrastructure, platform and software services: Rather than sticking with a single cloud provider who may have the best compute and storage services, public sector should adopt a portfolio of IaaS, PaaS and SaaS options that supports their business needs both now and in the future.
3. Reduce costs: The cloud offers a compelling and cost-effective alternative to on-premise in the public sector.
4. Refocus on delivering value to the mission rather than continuing to invest in commodities: Instead of purchasing hardware and software that must be upgraded and managed through its lifecycle, the cloud allows IT departments to cede much (and in some cases all) of this work to third-party providers.
5. The cloud is the perfect platform for business service modernisation. Benefit from a rich portfolio of applications, infrastructure and services that are ready to be used. Innovation in clouds today is unparalleled in the tech industry, almost guaranteeing that an investment in the cloud will remain modern for years to come.

Read more in GCN

Digital transformation within the public sector is opening up new services

Raconteur lists five key examples of digital transformation in the public sector that are “opening up services and improving delivery in a wide range of areas worldwide”. Here are some picks from the article:

1. Vancouver, first city to develop and implement a digital strategy in Canada has multiple digital transformation initiatives that have delivered value and benefits to residents, staff, businesses and visitors. For instance, VanConnect, a mobile app that enables users to view and access information about various city programmes and services anywhere, and #VanWiFi, that provides free public wifi at around 600 locations citywide, making it one of the largest free public wifi networks in North America.
2. By the end of this year, all Moscow schoolchildren will have access to an online school, a cloud-based education platform holding 800,000 assignments, textbooks, tests, educational presentation.
3. In Estonia, virtually all government services are delivered digitally, with the exceptions of marriage, divorce and property purchases. The main principle of Estonia’s e-government is that citizens should have to provide information only once.

Read more in Raconteur

Cloud is the New Normal in Government. Now What?

According to AWS Blog, The U.S. federal government has been migrating to the cloud for a long time. The cloud journey began with email services and websites, and now virtually any type of workload is running in the AWS Cloud. So what does the future of cloud computing in government look like? Here are a few take aways from this blog post:

• Agencies will start moving from workload-specific cloud migrations to enterprise-wide solutions
• Workforces will become more productive: employees can experience greater empowerment with new technology tools that allow them to focus on strategic, innovative, mission-critical work.
• IT systems will become much more responsive: by moving to an agile DevOps model, IT teams are able to iterate quickly and deploy code on a daily basis, with little risk.
• More organizations will be able to solve problems that they weren’t able to solve in the past.

Read the full blog post and watch a video of Brett McMillen, Senior Manager for U.S. Federal Civilian at AWS, talking about the future of cloud computing in government.

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