The Federal government, state and local governments, and higher education institutions are seeing the appeal of adopting cloud offerings in areas such as increased speed and cost savings, according to a recent MeriTalk survey titled “Destination Cloud: the Federal and SLED Cloud Journey.”
However, though 89 percent of those surveyed responded that they saw the benefits, 95 percent said they saw drawbacks in areas such as security, privacy, and reliability.
“Cloud adopters are working to understand the rules of the road and want roadside assistance,” said Milo Speranzo, director strategy and compliance at Tech Data. “To get in the fast lane to real cost savings, cloud adopters need clear migration strategies, appropriate cost models, and to prioritize the most critical cloud-ready apps.”
The survey found that, on the whole, agencies and organizations were lacking on those migration strategies, with only 46 percent of respondents developing a cost model and 45 percent preparing their workforce for the transition.
Cloud adapters plan to double the number of their apps on the cloud, from 35 percent today to 60 percent in 2021, and 65 percent of Fed, 56 percent of state and local, and 63 percent of higher education respondents responded that “when considering new investments, they now first look to cloud options.”
“Agencies and institutions must factor regulations, budget constraints, and the limitations of legacy systems–leaving them with little flexibility to respond to evolving mission demands,” said Rob Stein, vice president of U.S. public sector at NetApp. “Public sector adopters are looking to take advantage of the benefits of cloud, but they need a solution that allows them to manage, migrate, and secure their most valuable assets as needed.”
The survey also found that most cloud adopters are running the bulk of their cloud services on a private cloud, rather than public or hybrid versions.
