Many state and local government agencies are making the switch to cloud computing, and they are reaping the benefits across the board. According to a recent report from Forbes, many organizations are moving to a true “cloud first” orientation, beginning to host more data and applications in the cloud. Slowly but surely, more agencies are reporting that they have experienced cost savings, scalability and outstanding levels of data security when they started implementing government cloud computing strategies.
“This report shows that government agencies are achieving remarkable results in the cloud,” said Bruce Rogers, chief insights officer at Forbes Media. “Leaders like the City of Miami, the State of Alabama and even the Department of Defense are demonstrating that the cloud can deliver vast improvements in the quality of government.”
The more comfortable agencies become with the cloud, the more they use it. Organizations are utilizing the cloud to further strengthen mission-critical processes and are finding it’s a great way to improve citizen relations while saving funds for other important community projects.
Opportunity for growth
American city & county contributor Mark Oliver stressed that state and local governments should embrace big data and cloud trends, as these solutions can increase agency efficiency, help modernize IT infrastructures and pave the way for future growth.
The cloud is already helping government agencies work smarter in order to ensure citizens are getting the best services possible. The Forbes report found that a key motivator in adoption of cloud computing for local government was the desire to provide better services to citizens. According to InformationWeek contributor Elena Malykhina, the General Services Administration became one of the first adopters of cloud technology by migrating basic email and collaboration services for its 17,000 employees.
Financial implications
The cloud is cost-effective, as well. According to American city & county contributor Shawn Rodriguez, utilizing a cloud solution can lead to significant savings in the long run for government agencies. Organizations have been historically cautious about cloud adoption due to privacy and security concerns, but Rodriguez said that CIOs are more easily finding the right combination of public, private and hybrid cloud services to strengthen citizen engagement as well as saving money. Because cloud environments can scale to fit the computing requirements of the organizations using them, savings can come from not having to invest in physical infrastructure.