Cloud services change how federal agencies acquire, fund, and use IT services. IT managers must realize they’re buying a service, not technology.
Cloud computing has introduced a brand new model of acquiring hardware and software. In fact, you are not acquiring anything physical, and far of the worth of moving to the cloud is driven by the transition from using physical resources (hardware, software, and labor hours) to the consumption of online services (infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, and software-as-a-service) that deliver similar functions.
While the technical aspect of this transformation seems to capture all of the headlines, the financial and governance aspects are only as important — but turn out at the back burner. Unfortunately, the mandatory changes in management policy, acquisition processes, and organizational behavior rarely get the planning they deserve or get executed properly upfront. This disconnect can quickly derail any cloud transition.
Government IT managers must accept that cloud computing means the acquisition of a service, not the acquisition of technology. This usually represents a fundamental change in how technology is acquired and managed. Since the transaction doesn’t involve any physical entity, the procedures and processes related to the inspection, acceptance, inventory, and management of it will probably not apply. IT managers must instead develop and put into place new parallel policies that apply to the delivery of virtual services.
[Here’s how the Navy is handling a cloud-driven IT overhaul: Navy Eyes Cloud Storage.]
As consumers of a service, government procurement organizations also ought to realize they’ve got less control over the technology that’s getting used to provide the service. In addition they may need less control of the placement and storage of knowledge, and can ought to evolve data security and storage policies to deal with possible risks. This transformation carries through even to when the service is discontinued, because physical decommission processes now not apply. These differences require IT managers to change the control mechanisms they use to control IT resources.
Changes to the cloud model can even drive changes within the public sector budgeting process, moving multi-year capital expenditures into the once a year operational expense column. This inevitably leads to a far tighter linkage between internal financial approval processes and an agency’s operational delivery capability.
In this new environment, delays within the back office can immediately affect customer and constituent satisfaction. Back-office processes that took days to finish must now be done in hours or minutes. This example drives the necessity to change back-office behavior and plenty of financial review and approval processes. Inside the public sector, this could also require important changes in law. Senior elected and appointed officials, IT managers, and procurement executives might, sometimes, want to make decisions in real-time so one can fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities — particularly when responding to emergencies or disasters.
On the flip side, cloud services also allow for a way more rapid response to mission and business needs. This development changes the customer’s definition of acceptable service. Issues that take a number of minutes to correct aren’t any longer tolerated when another service is purely a mouse-click away.
Government agencies have to pay particular attention to this new reality. Their constituents now compare government services to these of Apple and Google. Agency leaders have to comprehend how this crucial change in perception can quickly result in unhappy constituents. Additionally they have to address how one can modify and decommission information-based services a lot more rapidly.
Cloud services represent a fundamental shift within the way government agencies acquire, fund, and use IT services. The agencies ought to adapt their missions, IT, and internal policies a good way to operate effectively during this new environment.
Find out how a central authority program is putting cloud computing at the fast track to higher security. Also within the Cloud Security issue of InformationWeek Government: Defense CIO Teri Takai on why FedRAMP helps everyone.
Kevin L. Jackson is the CEO & founding father of GovCloud Network, which provides technical training and business education at the use of advanced information technology. He previously has held senior management and IT leadership positions for NJVC, Sirius Computer Solutions, IBM, JP Morgan Chase, and SENTEL Corporation.
Sean Rhody is Chief Technology Officer of Capgemini Government Solutions, answerable for technology and cloud computing solutions across Capgemini’s federal and state and native public sector practices. Prior to joining Capgemini, Rhody was a partner at Computer Sciences … View Full Bio
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