Guest Blog: Building the Digital Foundations with Cloud
Public sector organisations are under increasing pressure to utilise new, innovative technologies that can help improve the digital services they provide to UK citizens. Yet, it is expected that over the next two years, billions will be invested in contract extension for legacy hardware – so how ready are public sector organisations to take the leap?
The cloud should be viewed as an enabler. An opportunity to transform. Yet, many public sector organisations still seem to favour on-premises solutions over the cloud. They are still unsure if the cloud is compatible with legacy environments.
This blog discusses why cloud shouldn’t be reserved for purely cloud-native applications, and how by moving legacy IT to the cloud, public sector organisations can begin to build the digital foundations they need to kickstart their wider, more visionary digital strategy.
Security
Contrary to expectation, the cloud is often much more secure than legacy environments.
Outside of the public sector, over two thirds of organisations agree cloud is more secure than legacy systems. So why are public sector organisations delaying their move to the to cloud? Yes, there is something to be said about the reassurance of owning your own datacentre. Knowing where your data is, having control over any breakages or other issues.
But it can. With cloud, you can hand over the burden of maintaining your organisation’s many enterprise applications, minimising risk of a ransomware attack or downtime for patches and upgrades. You also do not miss out on first class cyber-security personnel; most cloud providers deploy their own Security Operations Centre (SOC) and utilise expertise to maintain a secure environment.
Often the misconception of on-premises datacentres is that these are state-of-the-art facilities, when, in reality, they are mismanaged, poorly located and most likely, inefficient. These facilities are often a breach waiting to happen, putting the organisation at risk.
So, imagine having the ability to leap straight from your risky estate, to an environment where your data is physically more secure. On top of that, you gain direct access to government and community networks, and the potential to host Above Official workloads. In moving your legacy workloads to cloud, you are building a more secure digital foundation for your organisation.
Operational Resilience & Kaizen
Data, and the infrastructure on which it relies, is a ‘vital national asset’.
Though, with a plethora of government reports on data best-practice over the last 20 years, there is a need for clarity and direction. The importance of data and digital infrastructure is growing. How organisations manage and store their data and manage their integral applications will prove key over the coming years. And for companies who adopt a fire-fighting culture, the government’s cloud-first initiative must be an opportunity to change.
Moving from legacy estates to host critical workloads in the cloud does not just pave the way for digitisation but it also lays the foundations of a more resilient digital culture. A Kaizen culture, ensuring your strategic vision is fulfilled by regular iterative improvements.
Value for money
What about cost as a benefit? With cloud, the tangible value of a well laid digital foundation is the outcome it provides.
The cloud brings value for money in many ways. By moving from your on-premises data centre to the cloud, you can ditch that technical debt to take advantage of the flexible cost model of cloud and streamline your digital expenditure - avoiding future technical debt for digital workloads.
Leaving behind the spiralling maintenance costs, the money spent keeping equipment alive, and the opportunity cost of poorly utilised resource. Move your legacy applications to a new, more efficient home and redistribute your resources to the things that matter most to your organisation - delivering better services to UK citizens.
Value is constructed from the opportunity cloud brings. There is value for you, and for your customers. Cloud is an enabler, a migration away from a costly legacy estate to an environment that can help you utilise data in a smarter, more efficient form.
Digital Transformation
Crafting the perfect digital transformation strategy can be a challenge without a stable digital foundation on which to build. That digital foundation - those first building blocks - can be enough to fulfil some organisations’ interpretation of cloud-first. For others, cloud-native is appealing but is still very much a pipe dream.
However, the minimum requirement for all organisations should be to migrate existing workloads to the cloud. Think of cloud as an opportunity. A chance to strategically plan how it can transform your organisations’ digital capabilities.
Remember though, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
Speak with responsible vendors and experts who can help guide you on your journey to the cloud - and help ensure you adopt the right and proper technologies. Harness the flexibility and choice of multi-cloud and realise how a breadth of technology can allow you to advance from legacy hosting, to cloud-native, whenever you are ready.
This is a wake-up call.
It is an opportunity for businesses spending all day fighting fires to better utilise resources and consider the possibility of that which may not have seemed possible. The opportunities of AI and IoT can help transform, not just operational capabilities, but also communities and stakeholders.
Put the building blocks in place to pave the way for your digital transformation.
It’s time to do more than keep the lights on.
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