With migrations underway as agencies are upgrading ageing infrastructure, cloud computing is the centrepiece of government IT modernisation. The cloud migration and adoption initiatives will likely reform the security authorisation process. However, the question still arises if migration is necessary.
Here are four leading practices technology leaders can rely on to deliver business value through the cloud:
- Create cloud landing zones to create a governance framework that allows for large-scale migration and innovation.
A cloud landing zone is a pre-configured, standardised environment that enables workloads across several accounts. It centralizes and automates account administration, budget and cost management, as well as security, risk, and compliance, to provide the tooling and controls required for governance at scale. A landing zone usually comprises a standardized service catalog and automations to make deployment of safe cloud services, monitoring, identification, access management and other security tools easier.
- Sequence migration efforts and rationalise application portfolios to land the most accretive workloads in the cloud.
Cloud managers should work with C-suite leaders, product line managers, and other agency team members who are familiar with existing application portfolios and have knowledge of budgeted investments in new workloads.
Furthermore, IT managers should make use of existing enterprise architectural tools and analyse the business effect of workloads that are candidates for migration. By demonstrating the importance of a migration candidate to mission achievement, a business impact analysis can also help assess the criticality of business processes and applications. As a result of this data, judgments about migration priority and strategy should be made. While there are a number of other factors to consider when prioritising cloud migrations, these methods will provide agencies with information that will enable them to determine the most likely candidates to migrate first.
- Develop architecture, business case and approach when planning migrations.
Because cloud migration is an engineering effort that involves investment, business advantages, risks, costs, and ROI must all be considered when making decisions and prioritising priorities. Cloud migration business cases should be based on architectural due diligence and provide guidance on the costs of workload migrations, workload cloud operations, and on-premise operations – including costs such as facilities, power, administrative services, environmental controls, and parallel transition operations – which are often overlooked. When using technology business management concepts, business case preparation for all assigned expenses estimations should heavily rely on TBM analytics.
- Continuously monitor and optimise cloud usage and economics.
To ensure that the stated ROI and advantages of workload transfers are realised, agencies should collect cloud cost and consumption statistics. Consistently reviewing cloud costs and performance, for example, will ensure that migrated workloads are meeting business goals. Agencies should also assess cloud service provider offerings and pricing on a regular basis to ensure that cloud expenditures are made in the most cost-effective way possible.
ow is the moment for agencies to create a well-managed cloud migration strategy that will strengthen basic cloud capabilities while also allowing them to quickly provide the service upgrades that will have the greatest impact on mission success. These business practices are essential for a smooth transition and are well worth the time and effort.
As reported by OpenGov Asia, A report titled “Government Cloud Platforms 2021–2022 RadarView” evaluated 15 providers based on product maturity, enterprise adaptability and future readiness. The report identifies four trends that are shaping the market. The first is the increasing compliance needs that are accelerating the shift to the cloud. The cloud helps agencies address sensitive workloads, such as those involving health care data while complying with requirements.
