By WP Creative Group

October 15, 2024

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Digital innovations have the potential to transform the government sector, giving federal and state agencies the means to roll out innovative services that can benefit constituents. Artificial intelligence, for example, can help agencies in areas such as healthcare, climate, emergency response and cybersecurity. It could even assist the space administration in getting humans to Mars one day.

But accessing, maintaining and using these innovations – which also include analytics, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality and more – can be
challenging for agencies who are working to balance priorities and budgets and overcome a government tech workforce shortage.  

There is a solution – cloud computing. As an on-demand service provided by hyperscalers, the cloud can reduce costs and labor requirements for federal agencies.

Yet only 50 percent of federal agencies are actively utilizing cloud services. Experts say this must increase if agencies are to more effectively serve the public and operate as efficiently and sustainably as possible. “The cloud environment is constantly evolving, and it’s really necessary for the government to be able to work at the speed of technology,” says Kate Abrey, cloud leader, Government & Public Services at Deloitte Consulting LLP.

The cloud in action

Many agencies already consistently use cloud services to deliver on their missions, meet sustainability goals and strengthen security. For example, one is using the cloud to dynamically price insurance in areas prone to the effects of climate change while another is using it to support innovative breast cancer research. Still another has tapped the cloud to help deliver critical medical care on the battlefield.

As cloud-powered services extend further out to the edge to systems like smartphones and automated vehicles, even more advanced applications could emerge. For example, agencies involved in disaster relief could use self-guided robots to search for and help individuals and families who have been impacted by natural disasters.

Beyond improving services, the cloud can help agencies reduce their environmental footprint while continuing operations at full capacity. An agency’s compute activity typically accounts for less energy consumption when it is performed in the cloud than if it is operating its own, in-house data center.

Just like riding a bus, rather than driving a car, the cloud uses less energy per occupant and achieves the same result. The cloud model also allows agencies to scale compute resources up or down, depending on demand. This not only provides a cost benefit, it can reduce energy waste. “It allows the government to be a good steward of the environment,” says Abrey, who leads strategic growth for the cloud at Deloitte Consulting LLP.

The cloud also has the ability to enhance security, which is vital to agencies who store sensitive information, including military plans and personal data. Earlier this year, the federal government warned thousands of taxpayers that their information may have been compromised due to a data breach – a reminder of the threat environment facing federal agencies and the importance of strengthening cybersecurity postures to protect against future events.

“Moving to the cloud helps advance capabilities around threat detection and incident response,” says Doug Bourgeois, technology strategist and managing director in Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Federal Cloud & Architecture practice. The cloud enables agencies to more quickly implement advanced security postures such as Zero Trust, in which defenses treat all attempts to access a system as potentially malicious in order to reduce the odds of a successful cyberattack. “The mechanisms of authentication and authorization are very robust in the cloud, and are readily available,” says Bourgeois.

Making the move

With all the potential benefits, it’s not surprising that many experts say more agencies should embrace cloud computing. But there are some important considerations when it comes to choosing a cloud provider.

Government agencies have specific requirements that may be less relevant or inapplicable in the private sector. Among these is the provider’s ability to meet the agency’s compliance requirements. Agencies in sensitive areas such as defense, healthcare or scientific research face strict data-protection rules to safeguard the information of those they serve and the missions they support. “I’m not saying it’s not an issue for them, but meeting those compliance requirements is something the commercial sector doesn’t have to worry about to the same degree,” says Bourgeois. “It’s a lot more important and there are a lot more security compliance and control sets that the government agencies have to tend to.”

Moving to the cloud also takes careful migration planning. “There are things that have to happen in order to take full advantage of the cloud environment,” says Abrey. Among them, the organization must have a change management strategy in place that includes not just technology but also people as the transition requires a new approach to work and a fresh mentality around securing, accessing and storing information. “They have to feel comfortable with ceding control out of their data center, which they can go feel, touch and see,”
says Abrey of transitioning away from an in-house data center. Deploying Cloud Native Services, where agencies tap “born-on-the-cloud” tools and applications, can also help to ease the migration.           

Agencies must also decide whether cloud is the most cost-effective location for all of their data, or if alternate storage or disposal is more efficient. Applying a holistic approach to cloud cost, known commonly as FinOps, can yield both cost insights and opportunities for optimization when leveraging cloud.

By engaging stakeholders representing the customer, technology and business in these decisions, FinOps offers a framework enabling better informed, data-driven decision making. Deloitte Consulting LLP, a certified FinOps provider, offers FinOps services that can help organizations enhance cloud costs while aligning resources with business goals.

Another factor to consider is that cloud computing is not one-size-fits-all. There are several models that agencies can choose from depending on their short- and long-term goals. They can select a single provider, use multiple providers or maintain a hybrid approach in which some critical systems are kept in-house. Agencies must also investigate whether a given provider can accommodate their future plans. For example, if an agency plans to make heavy use of AI, it will need to know that a potential cloud partner will continually invest in the latest chips, advanced networking and other hardware, as well as the latest software, to keep up with breakthroughs in that area.

“The decision is really driven by the strategy of the agency itself,” says Bourgeois. “What are their priorities and what are they trying to accomplish with their mission strategy.” He notes that “not all clouds are created equal. Maybe a mission capability will be much better supported in a different cloud.”

Avoiding lock-in

Moving from one cloud to another can be cumbersome and expensive, raising the potential risk that an agency could be stuck in a particular vendor’s cloud. This could be an issue if the agency wishes to migrate to a new provider that could better serve its needs.

To help avoid lock in, Bourgeois suggests prioritizing “cloud native” applications and data during initial migration to enhance portability and adaptability across different hardware and virtualized environments. Cloud native apps are geared to run on any type of hardware, often within virtualized environments, so are more portable than legacy apps. “Transitioning the entire system over to the cloud in a native way, such as using newer technologies including containers, makes it easier to migrate between clouds,” he says. Agencies that simply “lift and shift” older, legacy architectures to the cloud will miss out on many of the benefits. “Your costs can accrue very quickly with a poorly designed architecture,” says Bourgeois. FinOps has a role to play here.

Moving data to cloud native applications also provides a solid foundation for generative AI. Cloud-native apps are highly scalable and cost-effective, making them well-suited for services that need to support thousands or even millions of users.

To help plan their cloud migration, agencies should consider working with a consulting firm that understands the connection between information technology, business operations and human capital. “The great thing about Deloitte Consulting LLP is that we speak unusually deep business language and have exceptional technology,” says Abrey. “We provide that translation layer to overcome some of those human risks and challenges,” she says, noting that Deloitte Consulting LLP is a business consulting firm committed to applying those insights to support government agencies in embracing new technologies to deliver for the public.