Advantages to cloud infrastructure for local authorities

Our resident digital transformation expert Dave Briggs, gives his 5 reasons why local authorities would benefit from transferring their infrastructure to the cloud.

According to Gartner only 20.4% of Local governments IT budget is currently being spent on cloud. However, local government is undergoing fundamental changes such as Devolution, the One Team Gov movement and pressure to rapidly digitise and join up services in the face of resource pressures.  It is clear then, local governments would benefit from investing in cloud infrastructure as a way of unlocking opportunity as well as managing risk.

The key advantages include:

1) Increased resilience – the sheer scale of operation of large cloud providers such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google mean that the availability and uptime of their platforms cannot be rivalled by in-house offerings. Disaster recovery is a major risk for all Councils at present and the move to the cloud would also help mitigate this.

2) Better performance – again, the scale available to cloud providers means that the latest technology is available and supported, meaning Councils technology will run quickly and efficiently.

3) Access to skills and knowledge – as a group of relatively small district and borough councils, with limited financial resources, it is difficult to recruit staff with skills and knowledge in the latest developments in IT infrastructure. Working with much larger, specialist organisations will ensure that niche and expensive skills will be available when the Councils need them.

4) Information security – Councils can maintain an emphasis on excellent IT security by tapping into the greater resources and knowledge that partners will be able to provide. Utilising the guidance issued through central government on cloud security, Councils can ensure maximum flexibility is delivered in the technology stack whilst also ensuring data is as secure as it can be.

5) Narrowing focus – district and borough councils are already responsible for the delivery of a wide range of different services. The Councils’ focus in an increasingly pressured financial environment must be on those areas where they have the opportunity to add value. Technology infrastructure is an area with a well established market of highly commoditised products and services, the effective use of which will enable Councils to focus on their areas of specialism and avoid getting distracted.

So with this in mind, we at Advice-Cloud know of a great place to source Cloud infrastructure, the take up from local authorities as been a bit slower than that of Central Government, but that said, for those wanting to make a the transition without getting bogged down by a very long and complicated route, we seriously recommend starting by looking at services on the Digital marketplace’ G-Cloud.