Written by Tod Tompkins
A recent article in Federal Computer Week cites a poll of more than 500 government professionals taken by the Ponemon Institute on the state of cloud computing. Not surprisingly, security concerns emerged as the primary reason for not transitioning to a cloud environment, with nearly half of the respondents indicating they were “not confident” about the data protection and security features associated with cloud service offerings. This information is certainly not groundbreaking, but another fact the poll reveals definitely caught my eye and made me ask…is the cloud bursting?
One of the key selling points for cloud transition is the promise of future cost savings – an “invest now for the future” approach. However, according to this study, government professionals are not as optimistic as some policy makers, with only 12 percent agreeing that cloud computing will bring significant cost savings and one-third noting that cloud would have no impact on cost whatsoever. To take that a step further, 20 percent thought that a move to the cloud would actually result in some cost increase.
To be successful for future cost savings, agencies must take interim steps by conducting a migration procedure for each system/application that has a planned cloud transition. The process ensures that the transition is completed with only the most up-to-date systems/applications on the most current platforms. And, the migration process enables near-term cost savings while serving as the step for long-term deductions through cloud computing; it’s the gateway to the cloud.
The cloud is not ready to burst, but agencies need to take a small step assessing and migrating their data/applications before transitioning. What are your thoughts?
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