Cloud – The Key to Public Sector Agility (Guest blog from Wipro)

Author: Omkar Nisal, Managing Director – UK & Ireland, Wipro

After the sudden and unprecedented disruption of the pandemic highlighted critical needs and gaps in agility-to-respond, governments are stepping up their efforts to transform public sector IT capabilities to provide new citizen-centric services and operational efficiencies.

However, unlike enterprises, the public sector is often still struggling to align cloud computing operations with its initiatives and business goals. This is made even more difficult due to a lack of public sector budget, inertia and the absence of necessary resources.

When used correctly, cloud computing has instead the potential to strengthen security, provide cost savings, speed up delivery and provide the public sector with more flexible, agile opportunities.

How has increased digitisation transformed the public sector?

The primary purpose of the public sector is to provide services and care for all its citizens. Since the pandemic there has been a shift in the expectation of consumers as well. Now, in a world where people are increasingly reliant on being able to do things digitally, we expect services from our public sectors to be as instant as clicking and streaming a video from Netflix. Booking a vaccine or claiming an allowance should be that accessible in these times. The public sector needs to be able to adapt rapidly to any changing circumstance, something which has been essential during the last two years. This is where cloud comes into its own. By having well-built cloud-powered platforms, you can build swiftly, with flexible scalability, in response to any changing circumstance – be it a pandemic or cost of living crisis or whatever is next in these challenging times. This means governments can react effectively, at speed, to what are often dynamic shifts in technology and computing needs.

How can the public sector get the most out of the cloud computing opportunity?

When used correctly, cloud computing has the potential to strengthen security, provide cost savings, speed up delivery and provide the public sector with more flexible, agile opportunities.

In order to successfully transform the cloud operations of an organisation, leaders must look for the right technology providers and consulting services providers. Together, they can combine industry-leading business solutions with a high touch, business outcome-based approach, to help maximise the transformative potential of cloud, central government departments and local government bodies all need to do their research and have an intentional roadmap. There are a multitude of reports and recommendations out there that can be used to better understand and compare options. This is where they can leverage the right partners to demystify and declutter the options, as well as seamlessly bringing together an ecosystem of solutions. This ranges from consulting and strategy development to cloud engineering innovation, migration and transformation. That way, they can create a unified approach integrating the latest leading solutions in the marketplace. This is especially important for the public sector where employees are time poor and under resourced – they need systems that are simple and easy to manage as well as effective.

Cybersecurity and cloud computing

Choosing the right technology provider is also imperative as cyber security threats evolve. Many public sector organisations worry that cloud hosting presents a loss of control. In fact, public cloud can offer better protection than ‘on premises’ in many ways, by providing centralised protection and backed-up data, whilst also embracing continual improvements/advancements in technology. Again, by working with both technology providers and consulting services the public sector can ensure a move to cloud which offers enhanced security ensuring critical data is better protected. This is of even greater importance to the public sector where sensitive personal data is often held.

The cloud offers numerous benefits to public sector organisations and the UK Government is operating a ‘cloud first’ policy for all decisions concerning technology – the time to uplift and reinvent the citizen-centric public sector services powered by the innovation of cloud is now and combining the specialist skills of technology providers and consulting services will ensure a smooth transition and deliver far reaching rewards.

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