CIOs: Understanding Cloud Strategy in Government Agencies

Cloud adoption is on the rise. The best moment for government CIOs to start asking questions about  how to include cloud in their strategy was few years ago. The next best moment for government CIOs is now.

What is cloud strategy in regulatory agencies?

Let’s start with what is not a cloud strategy. Cloud strategy is not a road that will solve all of the existing problems within the government agency. The strategy must be focused on transforming specific activities. The digital transformation may include only the inspection management processes in food agency for example, or case management in social care institutions. It’s crucial for CIOs to understand that cloud strategy doesn’t have to capture everything in the long term IT plan of the government agency. In a perfect world it’s good to have planned everything upfront, but this is rarely present in reality. That’s why it’s important for government CIOs to understand that they should not give up on cloud strategy just because their strategy doesn’t touch every process within the organization.

Who must be involved in the efforts of setting a cloud strategy in government agency?

We already talked in our blog about the best way to find good cloud software for government agencies. It outlines a step-by-step guide for finding good egovernment cloud software online. But when it comes to strategy there are also steps that should be outlined.

The formulation of cloud strategy is a group effort. A key part of the strategy is to form a dedicated team. Most of the organizations engage variety of IT roles in this team (people responsible for IT security, operations, etc.). But the cloud strategy team must not be limited only to IT roles. For example, HR leads in the team can help the workforce transition in the cloud at later point, the finance leads can advise on costs and savings, etc.

After cloud strategy comes cloud implementation

After the CIO has a cloud strategy it’s time for cloud adoption (or implementation). The implementation part is where the team actually starts to act toward adopting the cloud. The difference between cloud strategy and cloud implementation plan is that the strategy is clear and concise and serves as a foundation for adopting cloud for all activities within the organization. If we talk about cloud implementation for inspection software then the implementation plan must be aligned with the cloud strategy. If we talk about cloud implementation for case management, the implementation plan must aligned with the cloud strategy.

It can be presented with this Gartner figure:

Related: Everything you need to know about cloud adoption in government

Not having a cloud strategy in 2020 is not a thing that government agencies in EU should be proud of. This is why government agencies and their CIOs should start working on their cloud strategy now. Being late for the cloud party creates additional layer of urgency for CIOs to understand the meaning of cloud strategy and why it is different from implementation plan. If the government agencies follow clear cloud strategy, then they will avoid the unplanned ad-hoc costs that may emerge in the cloud implementation of different activities at different point in time. Last but not least, by having a clear strategy at hand, every functional lead involved in the cloud adoption team will be able to use his own imagination on  how cloud can be used in their operations.

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