https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
  • Resources & Events
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
  • Resources/Events
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers/eBooks
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
  • Magazine
acc.com

Commentaries


Adobe Stock

Article

How to accelerate SLG cloud modernization through emerging technology solutions

How to accelerate SLG cloud modernization through emerging technology solutions

  • Written by Mike Wiseman
  • 18th April 2022

State and local government (SLG) leaders have been on the road to IT modernization for more than a decade. First appearing on NASCIO’s State CIO Top Ten Priorities list in 2010, IT modernization has ranked a top-three priority every year since. For some organizations, the pandemic served as a catalyst for cloud adoption and as-a-service consumption models. For others, it halted legacy migrations in favor of more immediate mission needs.

As we start to look at the pandemic in the rear-view mirror, however, SLG leaders across the country are looking to further accelerate modernization to overcome some core challenges of legacy technologies and systems, including security vulnerabilities (52 percent), high operations and maintenance costs (42 percent), difficulty integration with new technologies (42 percent), and data integrity issues (37 percent), according to new research from MeriTalk.

Now, leaders seek technology solutions that properly outfit their organizations for the future by upgrading legacy systems, prioritizing modernization and encouraging collaboration.

Prioritizing the greatest risk

From ransomware attacks on school systems and hospitals to threats on critical infrastructure and government agencies, legacy systems are not only holding SLGs back but actively jeopardizing data security and citizen services. Eighty-three percent of SLG IT decision-makers say retaining legacy applications makes them more vulnerable to cyber threats. And nearly half (47 percent) had a modernization project fail in the past 12 months due to legacy systems—wasting taxpayer money.

With 96 percent of IT decision-makers believing critical infrastructures are at risk due to legacy systems, how long until those failures lead to catastrophe?

SLG leaders must act now, starting with systems that pose the most significant risk. As agencies look to invest in systems that prioritize data protection, no two agencies are alike. The key is to determine the most personalized data protection system to meet specific goals and outcomes.

Celebrate innovation and initiative

Despite clear modernization advantages, more than one in three SLG organizations (36 percent) say their leadership operates with an “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” approach to legacy systems. Unsurprisingly, these organizations are significantly more likely to have experienced a modernization project failure in the last 12 months.

Agency leaders need to take a front seat when it comes to initiatives like cloud modernization because reacting after a failure is not enough. While 55 percent of IT decision-makers feel well supported by their organization’s CIO, many do not. Instead, SLG leaders should look to create a culture that celebrates initiative and innovation, cemented with a top-down approach.

The future of virtual government depends on SLG leadership buy-in—and IT leaders can be change agents for their organizations when it comes to investing in the right cloud solutions.

Stand in support

As state and local governments prepare to accelerate cloud modernization, even the most advanced organizations can’t modernize decades of legacy systems and applications alone.

Take hybrid cloud, for example, which can be difficult to manage. Cloud operations can get expensive, and IT leaders don’t have the proper sense of what processes can be localized, what data should be stored in the cloud, and what makes sense to transition to the cloud in the short and long term. In fact, 84 percent say they need more guidance from cloud service provider (CSP) experts, particularly when it comes to security and cloud management.

SLG leaders should work with trusted partners to share adoption advice, identify funding opportunities, expand security education, and leverage proven technologies like Software as a Service (SaaS) to modernize cybersecurity, process management and IT service operations.

Emergence of containers and Kubernetes

For state and local agencies, an integrated cloud strategy will allow them to leverage and utilize emerging technologies to improve operations, deliver on the mission, and evolve citizen service practices. With the move to digital, governments must streamline and accelerate technologies to deploy integrated cloud, hybrid, and multi-cloud architectures. By moving some workloads to the cloud while repatriating others to on-premises, the pairing of cloud with containerization becomes increasingly essential.

In fact, 62 percent of leaders believe that containers and Kubernetes will be important for their organization’s cloud efforts over the next five years. Containerization allows governments to operationalize and deploy applications faster and more securely—bringing a heightened drive for data management for enterprise-level assurance while operating in a fully packaged and portable environment. Containerization platforms speed up platform development, prevent cloud vendor lock-in, and improve management and security platforms. In addition, containers are all-encompassing enough to scale as the needs of an agency evolve.

It’s clear that containerization will become a large pillar of agency strategies in the future. And Kubernetes, an open-source platform for managing containerized workloads and services, will give public sector IT development teams the tools to modernize their applications, using containers and microservices to gain speed, agility and scale needed to deliver true value to citizens.

Through investing in right-sized, efficient storage systems and application containers, agencies can elevate their citizen service capabilities while addressing the critical areas of cyber protection, data management and digital services. The right IT infrastructure can support citizen service, access and collaboration across the agency.

Looking ahead

While cloud adoption has been on the minds of government leaders for a few years, now is the time for state and local agencies to double down on the modernization approach best suited for their organizations to continue delivering efficient and effective citizen services. Through thoughtful upgrades of legacy systems, proactive modernization efforts and cross-agency collaboration, state and local governments will be armed with the technology, agility and scalability to better serve citizens for years to come.

 

Michael Wiseman is the vice president, public sector, Pure Storage, leading the sales team responsible for state, local and education customers in the United States. In his current role, Wiseman is responsible for developing a team to enable the transformation of how public sector customers protect, serve and educate their constituents by leveraging technology to connect, innovate and lead. Prior to joining Pure Storage, Wiseman spent 17 years at Cisco.

 

 

Tags: homepage-featured-1 homepage-featured-2 homepage-featured-4 Administration Smart Cities & Technology Commentaries Administration Smart Cities & Technology Article

Most Recent


  • MSPs
    The MSP downstream cyberthreat paradox: Understanding the city and county connection
    Recently the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) along with the FBI, NSA, and international cyber authorities issued a cybersecurity advisory aimed at protecting managed service providers (MSPs) and their customers. This high-level advisory has been gestating for some time ever since the SolarWinds and Kaseya supply chain cyber-attacks. A software supply chain attack occurs […]
  • Philanthropic group to launch assistance portal for local admins navigating federal bureaucracy
    A joint venture announced Tuesday by a group of philanthropic organizations—in collaboration with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities (NLC) and Results for America—seeks to help small and mid-sized communities secure their piece of the $550 billion in funding available for local governments navigating federal bureaucracy. The digital portal will launch […]
  • Report: Almost half of public sector retirees don't touch their retirement plans for a decade
    Once retired, nearly half of public sector employees aren’t taking any action with their defined contribution retirement plan funds for at least a decade, according to research from Mission Square Research Institute, which included the analysis of more than 100,000 public service data records. In their first ten years of retirement, researchers found that 48 […]
  • budget
    Four steps to ensure your budget prioritizes equity
    When you think of municipal budgets, the first thing that comes to mind is likely numbers. Many rows and many columns of numbers. But veteran municipal leaders know that successful budgets are about far more than numbers—they’re about quality of life and opportunities for every person in a community. For this reason, the budget process […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your American City and County account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Data protection, cloud advancement and containerization: 2022 state and local priorities
  • Trends for the future: Public procurement professionals adapt to the changing and challenging times ahead
  • Cybersecurity resilience begins with strategy and collaboration
  • Backup and restore: a powerful data duo

Twitter


AmerCityCounty

The MSP downstream cyberthreat paradox: Understanding the city and county connection dlvr.it/SQYVjs

17th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Philanthropic group to launch assistance portal for local admins navigating federal bureaucracy dlvr.it/SQY16G

17th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Report: Nearly 95 percent of America’s mayors face harassment, threats and violence dlvr.it/SQTn2z

16th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

The PIO’s Ultimate Guide to Social Media dlvr.it/SQTdCK

16th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Gain Greater Visibility Into Your Public Works Fleet dlvr.it/SQSqXG

16th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Report: Almost half of public sector retirees don’t touch their retirement plans for a decade dlvr.it/SQKMjp

13th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Four steps to ensure your budget prioritizes equity dlvr.it/SQJgZz

13th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Victims of Surfside condo collapse settle for nearly $1B in class action lawsuit dlvr.it/SQJffb

13th May 2022

Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X