In the public sector, cloud deployment is increasingly becoming a key enabler for digital transformation. Governments are looking to meet citizen expectations for convenient, digital experiences while managing vast amounts of data spread across disparate systems. And, with technical resources in short supply, many government organizations are struggling to innovate with current systems and infrastructure.
Government cloud services offer public sector organizations innovative ways to cut costs and deliver services, quickly pivot to new business models, create engaging customer experiences, enable remote work and learning and automate business processes.
Why now is the time to move to government cloud services
The 2021 Center for Digital Government (CDG) Cloud Migration Survey found that 70 percent of government organizations plan to migrate some workloads to the cloud in the next 12-18 months. The top use case cited for migrating to the cloud was citizen-facing web applications.
One reason for the increase in governments’ migration to the cloud is the success of related cloud security programs, such as FedRAMP in the U.S.
FedRAMP is a set of data security guidelines established in 2011 that prescribes the security requirements and processes cloud service providers need to follow to be approved for use by the government. Similar security programs include Protected B in Canada and the Information Security Registered Assessors program in Australia. These initiatives aim to ensure that government data stored in the cloud is protected and secure, while saving time, money and resources.
Benefits of moving to the cloud
Another reason for this sector’s interest in cloud is simply the many benefits this model offers, , including innovation and AI, storage savings, and automatic security and product updates—meaning no downtime for government users.
Security and compliance
The cloud has transformed the way many agencies use data information systems, and with those changes have come concerns about data integrity and security. Compared to legacy, custom-built applications housed locally, however, the cloud is well equipped for cyber security. For starters, cloud providers are continually upgrading to the highest levels of information security and data protection. Plus, regular back-ups and the ability to restore data can help ensure business continuity in the case of a security event. In addition, regulations in many countries mean that cloud suppliers must meet stringent requirements to stay compliant, giving government security organizations confidence that the cloud solutions they have adopted are as secure as possible.
At OpenText™, we help many security-conscious organizations improve their processes. . For example, the Department for International Development (DFID) recently implemented OpenText Content Suite and OpenText Remote Cache when its existing electronic document and records management solution no longer met its needs. Faced with potential security risks and impacted knowledge-sharing as users began relying on local hard drives, DFID turned to OpenText to implement a managed cloud solution, which has improved user adoption and compliance, reduced document retrieval from minutes to seconds, and eliminated data loss.
Flexibility and efficiency
With a cloud service provider, agencies no longer need to worry about relying on limited resources, buying and housing servers and hardware, updating software or data protection. Using the cloud makes it easy to add and change services without the hassle of work stoppages or adding or removing digital space. This flexibility means that new services and applications can be brought online quickly to help boost employee productivity and efficiency. Plus, moving to the cloud ensures that software is always up to date.
Data integration
The public sector is facing a “data tsunami,” as the volume of data that agencies must handle—and the silos in which they are stored—increases exponentially. Moving to the cloud can break down those silos, allow quick and easy sharing of information and ensure there is one true, verified version of that information. It also delivers the scalability to accommodate growth in data and the ability to make that data available to systems—such as artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics—where it delivers the most value.
Collaboration and innovation
Beyond just sharing documents, cloud services also allow government employees and contractors to access documents from anywhere in the world. This allows agencies to create digital ecosystems of partners, suppliers and other entities to work together on the development and delivery of new citizen services.
Leveraging hyperscalers
Many public sector cloud migration strategies began as an initiative to reduce the costs associated with running their own data centers. By adopting a cloud transformation strategy, government organizations can leverage hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) to replace physical data centers with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and migrate their on-premises workloads onto the organization’s managed cloud environment.
OpenText and AWS have partnered to bring government cloud solutions to the global public sector, delivering enterprise-wide content services that automate workflows and manage all forms of content throughout their lifecycle. Learn more about the benefits of this partnership in our eBook.
Cloud for Government from OpenText
At OpenText, we offer government agencies a bundled solution to deliver digital cloud services. The Cloud for Government solution from OpenText combines OpenText™ AppWorks™ and OpenText™ Extended ECM for Government to enable a seamless shift to digital that transforms how agencies work and collaborate, resulting in more agile and resilient operations.
AppWorks is a low-code development platform that helps government agencies build smart and easy-to-deploy process automation applications while remaining compliant with governance requirements.
Extended ECM for Government provides digital file and case management for modern administration in central, local and municipal government. The solution is FedRAMP-compliant and is the only enterprise content management solution specific to the Public Sector that has undergone rigorous validation by SAP to ensure the highest quality standards.
Learn more about how Cloud for Government from OpenText can help you accelerate digital transformation to boost engagement, productivity and agility.
