5 Ways for Government CIOs to Optimize Cloud Deployment

In 2020, the worldwide public cloud services market will grow by 17%, according to Gartner. The expected $266.4 billion increase, up by 10% from 2019, continues to spur the adoption of public could. Yet, many national and regional governments and agencies remain in the adoption or policymaking phase. 

“The adoption of public cloud cannot be excluded for long,” says Neville Cannon, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner. “Although government CIOs who have safely migrated encountered challenges — such as a lack of an enterprise cloud strategy, internal skills or access to an external talent pool — they succeeded nonetheless.”

The next step for government CIOs: Optimize your cloud adoption by learning how to enhance its deployment. Here are five actions to take now.

1. Create a policy, strategy and adoption plan

At a national or state level, government agencies must understand the intent, direction and roadmap of their cloud migration to avoid any wasted effort and deliver a smooth cloud deployment. Ensure that each department or agency’s cloud policy, strategy and adoption plan is well-articulated and made available across all business units.

2. Establish a cloud center of excellence

Create a cloud center of excellence (CCoE) to lead cloud adoption and governance. The CCoE maintains a cloud computing knowledge base and code repository, and actively solicits contributions from across the organization. It is a key ingredient for cloud-enabled IT transformation and is typically tasked with helping drive that transformation.

3. Build essential skills

The skills needed for cloud management, cloud architectures, etc., are often insufficient, lack funding, and are overlooked or deprioritized. Hire or retrain employees who are willing and able to learn new technologies and the processes that go with them. 

4. Expand SaaS use

Software as a service (SaaS) is the cloud-based service most adopted by businesses, so not deploying it is not an option. While government CIOs need to broaden its adoption, some risks will need mitigating. When you acquire SaaS, ensure that you implement a management and integration plan to maintain and guarantee a coherent and manageable approach to application and data integration.

5. Increase the adoption of cloud policy across the enterprise

A cloud-first policy does not solely affect IT. Government CIOs influencing or creating new or updated policies must ensure the instructions for using public cloud encompass the entire government agency, including all relevant professional disciplines such as procurement, finance and legal.