The big challenges in wide-scale government cloud adoption

The growing need for virtual workplaces has accelerated government migration to the cloud. Almost half of government organizations worldwide are now using cloud services, according…

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Keith Nelson

October 3, 20224 minutes read

The growing need for virtual workplaces has accelerated government migration to the cloud. Almost half of government organizations worldwide are now using cloud services, according to the World Bank’s Digital Development Partnership. Many of these government agencies are enjoying benefits like cost savings, scalability and flexibility, but some remain hesitant to make the leap. This is largely due to security, privacy and vendor lock-in concerns, as well as the cost of moving away from legacy infrastructure.

A summary of the benefits of public cloud deployment from the World Bank’s Digital Development Partnership

Many of these hesitations are addressed in the World Bank’s list of common global government misconceptions  about migrating to the cloud. This list includes concerns about migration costs, data security, privacy, sustainability and scalability. With each concern, the World Bank provides a reality-based view and case studies of global governments proving these concerns to be misguided. For example, the World Bank cites savings of 10-20% of an agency’s annual IT operating budget and cited the Israeli Ministry of Tourism as a proof point.

Solutions to transform the public sector 

OpenText has developed a cloud-based solution specifically designed for the public sector that address many governments’ concerns and provide peace of mind for agencies considering a move to the cloud.

Cloud for Government from OpenText combines our most widely adopted content services solutions including content capture, storage and document organization with archiving, records management and imaging. It enables secure storage of electronic documents in a manner that complies with government standards, while eliminating the expense and waste of paper-only processes. These offerings simplify security processes, providing automatic updates for cloud-optimized applications and infrastructure that allow national institutions to focus on modernizing business processes and enhancing the citizens’ experience, rather than on data center operations and compliance.  

Cloud for Government extends the modern, cloud-optimized benefits of information management to government agencies while adhering to ever-tightening and constantly changing security requirements. These offerings include: 

OpenText™ Extended ECM for Government  provides a digital file system that manages the lifecycle of content for public sector organizations. This solution was designed to bring government agencies out of legacy, paper-only processes while helping them maintain strict government compliance regulations. OpenText xECM for Government easily integrates into existing enterprise applications such as SAP®, Salesforce® and Microsoft® 365, and scales to support large volumes of content, allowing agencies to expand the solution as they grow. 

OpenText™ AppWorks  is a low-code development platform that helps government agencies  build engaging, smart and easy-to-deploy process-automation applications. Integrating this solution within a government agency allows you to achieve operational efficiencies and innovate on demand while remaining compliance with strict governance requirements.  

A case study in collaborative innovation

A U.S. government agency providing health services to the military needed to streamline disability processes for veterans. The legacy process required beneficiaries to manually enter information, causing inaccuracies and delays and adding a “time tax” to veterans who were burdened with data entry and making manual corrections. With case management and reporting from Cloud for Government, the agency can now automatically capture all necessary information, easing the burden on veterans and accelerating application approvals. 

OpenText and AWS

OpenText has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) as our preferred public cloud partner to deliver information management cloud solutions to the global public sector. OpenText selected AWS as a partner because of its vast experience in the global public sector and its capabilities as a leading cloud hyperscaler. The breadth, reliability and scalability of AWS will allow us to bring information management solutions securely to public sector organizations around the world. 

Learn more about  how OpenText is driving innovation for government agencies with Cloud for Government

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Keith Nelson

Keith Nelson is Senior Industry Strategist for Global Public Sector at OpenText. He has more than 20 years experience working in public sector high-tech and management consulting and as a government appointee. His roles in government include serving as Assistant Secretary for Administration, Chief Financial Officer, and Deputy Chief Information Officer at multiple U.S. Federal Cabinet Agencies.

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