Adoption hasn’t happened overnight, but the cloud is earning its keep among government agencies, slowly but surely. More than a decade has passed since the Federal Government issued its cloud-first policy, intended to help governments utilize the cloud to reap operational efficiencies and cost savings. Yet stops and starts followed, with tight budgets, data migration roadblocks, workforce gaps and legitimate security concerns inhibiting significant progress.
Fast forward to today and the cloud sits at the center of many agencies, serving as the foundation to better connect citizens and governments. We saw it firsthand during the pandemic, with those who had embraced the cloud able to quickly pivot to maintain operations with impressive agility and resilience.
The years ahead promise continued acceleration of IT modernization, with agencies recognizing the cloud as the strategic enabler to ramp up innovation, lean on automation and deliver the digital services that citizens demand.
Significant transformation is underway.
Security barriers be gone
Security has long been an inhibitor for governments to shift to the cloud, but the FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) framework gives U.S. agencies the confidence to make a move. Now, agencies can focus on cloud solutions such as Cloud for Government from OpenText, which this week achieved “In Process” designation from the U.S. Government, that meet rigorous cybersecurity standards, trusting that the deployment and data is properly protected and secure.
While the pandemic created the tipping point for agencies to take action, the FedRAMP framework provides the safeguards to ensure security requirements will be met. With FedRAMP-authorized solutions, agencies can rely on the uniform authorization of information security capabilities based on a unified security posture, saving time in the assessment process to more quickly reap cloud benefits.
Be remote, in person or something in between
The future of the workplace, in terms of where and how employees will work, has yet to play out. The pandemic changed the dynamics, potentially for good, leading agencies to rethink how to keep personnel productive yet safe.
The cloud gives organizations the flexibility to support a hybrid workforce, easily scaling to support remote employees — another strategic enabler. With data in the cloud, agencies can enable real-time, multi-site and collaborative access, ensuring that current work processes and responsiveness remain intact from anywhere.
Get closer to citizens
Citizens increasingly demand digital experiences like those received in the private sector, another place the cloud will shine. Digital transformation is allowing agencies to elevate citizen engagement, improving end-to-end service delivery with omni-channel interactions that are personal and on-demand.
Cloud-based citizen experience management solutions allow for tailored communications with each citizen based on how they want to engage, while incorporating self-service access to better utilize internal resources. The cloud will play a key role in helping organizations run a more efficient, digital government and changing how employees deliver services to give citizens the ease of engagement they deserve.
Collaborate, develop, deliver
The more intelligent and connected the government agency, the more opportunities for innovation and growth. The cloud is proving to be the conduit to improved internal and external collaboration, enabling cross-agency exchanges and the creation of ‘digital ecosystems,’ comprised of partners, suppliers and other stakeholders working together to develop and deliver new citizen services. An ideal test environment, agencies are also taking advantage of increased computing capacity to quickly scale and test ideas and models.
Get in on the low-code revolution
Government agencies are also moving to adopt cloud-based, low-code platforms to increase business agility and bring innovation to processes tied to a range of citizen services, such as grants management, permit management and the handling of citizen complaints. To combat constrained budgets and limited availability of highly skilled technical staff, low-code application platforms reduce development overhead and allow business users and citizen developers to get directly involved in the process of creating new systems and services.
Your digital transformation partner
Ready to fully embrace the cloud to accelerate your digital transformation initiatives? Cloud for Government from OpenText™ helps government agencies be cloud confident, delivering more personalized citizen experiences, improved employee productivity and enhanced collaboration — from anywhere.
