Public Sector Hosting April 2015

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Cloud computing for the public sector

Public sector organisations are increasingly driven to improve operational efficiency, share information, and integrate processes while maintaining control over costs. Recently, Cloud computing has captured significant attention as a solution to enable public sector organisations to achieve these objectives.

With solutions hosted at our UK based, ISO 27001 and

PGA‐Official certified, Tier 4 data centres,

this paper articulates our value proposition and key differentiators of our cloud.

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Is Cloud the right solution for the public sector?

Building on our success of working with National Governments and Local Authorities as well as winning the Education Investor Award for Technological Infrastructure, we have recently joined the G‐Cloud 6 framework. This paper briefly reviews the status of the Cloud in government, education, and healthcare organisations. It also helps make the business case for a Cloud Possibilities implementation by summarising the main advantages and business drivers.

The public sector has always looked for ways to deliver better services within tight budgets. Now, there is additional pressure to streamline operations and cost‐justify investments.

ICT decision makers in government, education, and healthcare organisations need to explore new approaches that increase operational efficiency and productivity, while maximising investments and lowering costs. With the Cloud offering consolidation of resources and automation, it has emerged as an important strategy for achieving these goals (the benefits outlined in this Local Government digital strategy document are an interesting read).

Email and web conferencing, tend to be the top priority for Cloud service deployments in many public organisations as they can be easily adapted. Mobile employees benefit from these applications because they can access them from anywhere, using a variety of devices. The Cloud makes physical location irrelevant and is a key component of many e‐government strategies.

Cloud Benefits

Sometimes it simply makes more sense to consolidate ICT assets than to purchase and develop them for use in separate sites or to set them up as separate systems. Governments share data and resources, so they are well positioned to take advantage of Cloud services.

An increasing reliance on bandwidth‐intensive video for teaching and learning has put pressure educational institutions to adopt the Cloud for email ccess, learning management systems, and storage, as well as collaborative technologies.

In the healthcare sector the Cloud Possibilities solution not only offers operational and cost efficiencies, but also has the potential to store

diverse medical data for easier retrieval. The Cloud Possibilities solution can also be used for medicine‐ at‐a‐distance applications that provide patients in rural areas access to a level of care normally available only in cities. For smaller clinics, Cloud services lift the burden of hiring IT staff to maintain in‐house infrastructure.

The Cloud Possibilities solution provides on‐demand access to a pool of resources: networks, servers, security, storage, applications, and services. With the Cloud Possibilities solution, an organisation has access to the advantages of data centre consolidation and shared resources.

Solutions from Cloud Possibilities allows small public sector organisations to innovate in ways that would not be possible were they forced to rely entirely on their own resources. Cities can share resources across a region, and agencies can collaborate across authorities. These entities can take advantage of Cloud Possibilities’ technologies in a short period of time, without a large cash outlay.

The public sector in developing countries is able to adopt applications more quickly and economically using Cloud‐based infrastructures while avoiding the need for expensive infrastructure.

Figure 1: What Government employees believe to be the most important capabilities in collaboration and community management software for their initiatives (Kahootz research ‐ February 2013)

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Cost Reduction and Control

Cloud Possibilities solutions can reduce the total cost of ownership.

Facilities consolidation: Many organisations are

attracted to Cloud Possibilities by the savings that come from consolidating their data centres. Resources that can be pooled include storage, compute, memory, and network bandwidth. In addition, organisations can save on real estate and energy costs and reduce their carbon footprint.

Labour optimisation: A Cloud Possibilities

deployment does not require as much provisioning, software development, or maintenance as a conventional infrastructure by in‐house staff, organisations can make better use of valuable ICT expertise by redirecting the workforce from routine operational and maintenance duties to mission‐ critical tasks.

Reduce capital expenditure: Cloud Possibilities

offers a pay‐as‐you go approach. Initial expenditures are comparatively low. Operating expenses go up or down depending on usage. Additional investments are made only when they are needed.

Improved Flexibility

ICT specialists are looking for technological solutions that enable them to react quickly and innovatively. Our solutions can often make change less burdensome and less expensive.

Mobility: The benefits include improved agility and

additional options for future enhancements. As workforces become increasingly mobile, virtualized desktops allow them to do their work anywhere, on a variety of personal devices.

Scalability: With a Cloud Possibilities platform,

managers can add capacity on demand without having to determine requirements beforehand or go through many of the traditional procurement, provisioning, and implementation processes.

Faster deployment: We deliver products

preinstalled in virtual machines, much of the traditional installation and configuration work associated with software deployment may not be necessary for a Cloud implementation.

Tailored solutions: The variety of Cloud Possibilities

deployment and service models ensures that

implementations can be aligned closely with business needs and ICT strategies.

Improved Collaboration

Public sector organisations are looking for ways to improve services and justify budgets. These organisations are turning to Cloud computing as the foundation for optimising current and future services.

Figure 2: The benefits of collaboration according to

Government employees (Kahootz research ‐ Feb 2013)

Application proliferation: The Cloud Possibilities

solutions support applications that offer new and better ways for governments to engage with citizens.

Accessible to all: Public sector organisations can use

Cloud Possibilities platforms to provide access to a wide range of services to underserved communities with ease

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Conclusion

Cloud Possibilities solutions are a catalyst for innovation and transformation that can greatly benefit public sector organisations of all types and sizes. According to survey results, top drivers for Cloud computing implementations in the public sector include business continuity, flexibility, better customer service, innovation, and the need for real‐time information.

By selecting Cloud Possibilities solutions that align closely with their organisation’s business model, public sector ICT decision makers can deploy an effective, economical solution, while also addressing reliability, data management, and security issues.

Collaboration: Cloud‐enabled collaboration

technologies built on Cloud Possibilities allow public sector employees to interact with their peers more efficiently. They also foster interagency cooperation, so they can serve the community better and respond faster to emergencies.

Risk Mitigation

Proven methods and technologies are in place at Cloud Possibilities to help ensure that systems run reliably, and that data and privacy are safeguarded.

Assured service levels: Managers can make sure

that existing service‐level agreements (SLAs) are maintained. Cloud Possibilities can offer a higher level of service than some ICT groups can provide when they are constrained by limited resources.

Resilience: Automated recovery can actually be

easier to implement in a Cloud Possibilities’ environment because resources are more consolidated. Many organisations can use the private Cloud Possibilities infrastructure as a failover for a public Cloud to increase resiliency.

Strong security: Data in the Cloud Possibilities

environment is secured with appropriate protective measures and is well maintained. Public organisations that have particularly strict security requirements may opt for a hybrid or private Cloud implementation that provide more protection than a public Cloud.

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About Cloud Possibilities

Cloud Possibilities is a division of Learning Possibilities, providing private and hybrid cloud solutions to the public sector for over 10 years. Our cloud platforms are currently used by over 1 million users across the UK. The organisation has recently joined the G‐Cloud framework to provide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions to support the UK Government’s drive to transform public sector IT and delivery of efficient and effective services to the public sector. The company has been a long standing Microsoft Gold Partner with key competencies in Hosting. In 2014, Learning Possibilities won the Education Investor Award for Technological Infrastructure. In 2012, Learning Possibilities won the national contract to provide the LP+4 learning platform to over 1500 schools in Wales. The cloud project, funded by the Welsh Government, offers a bi‐lingual, customised Microsoft SharePoint based learning platform solution that is available anytime, anywhere through a simple Internet connection. By signing into the solution, schools also have single sign on access to Microsoft's cloud service, Office 365 for teachers and learners. Cloud Possibilities 506 Centennial Park Centennial Avenue Elstree, Hertfordshire WD6 3FG UK. Email: [email protected] Phone: 020 8236 1041 Website: www.cloudpossibilities.com