5 Key Reasons to Move to the Cloud

Moving to the cloud is a trend, and the public sector is on board. According to Gartner, up to 60% of government organizations will use an external service provider’s cloud-managed service by 2022, doubling the percentage from 2018.

Organizations are making the move because of the cloud’s many benefits, from enhancing security to minimizing the IT footprint. Is your organization ready? Consider the graphic below.

Beyond the above checklist for readiness, it’s useful to explore some of the top cloud benefits specific to the public sector. Here are what we consider among the top five:

1. Reduce Capital Budget

Purchasing and maintaining the infrastructure required for on-premises hosting is costly. The cloud makes budget planning more predictable and saves money in the long run by eliminating expensive equipment purchases and maintenance.

2. Minimize IT Burden

Maintaining servers on site means IT staffs that are already stretched thin must perform backups, restore software, and maintain data. Eliminating the onus of overseeing on-premises servers frees up IT resources that can be redirected to better deliver services and solve community issues.

3. Improve Security

Experienced cloud providers employ teams of security experts to make sure data is safe. Equally important, the cloud environment provides superior disaster recovery capabilities. The cloud is a more reliable environment because of increased security, automated backups, and server redundancy.

Time to move to the cloud?

Explore the top benefits of moving to the cloud in greater depth.

4. Enhance Scalability

To meet evolving public expectations, governments must continuously improve technology capabilities to operate virtually and via mobile apps. Because cloud solutions are designed for scalability, systems and storage can easily increase without costly hardware purchases when the needs of a community grow or change. The cloud’s agility and flexibility are also crucial in times of crisis.

5. Access the Latest Technology

Keeping up to date in a cloud environment is not dependent on budgeting for, purchasing and installing new hardware, or waiting for the IT staff to deploy software upgrades. Cloud solutions keep software current while also enhancing remote and mobile capabilities for internal and external connections.

Moving data and systems to the cloud reduces capital expenses, improves IT efficiency and data security, ensures access to the latest technology, improves internal connectivity, and strengthens community engagement.