Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level by GovLoop

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

A GovLoop Guide

Contents 7 Ways to Take Cloud to the Next Level

Cloud as a Mission Plan

Cloud, Big Data & Machine Learning

FedRAMP, Security & Cloud

Contracting With Multiple Cloud Providers

Different Cloud Models for Different Workloads

Expansion of as-a-Service Offerings

Two Up-andComers: Containersas-a-Service, Serverless Computing

Executive Summary 4 Cloud Computing: An Overview 5 Cloud Computing: A Timeline 6 How You Can Leverage Cloud-as-a-Service at Your Agency 9 Creating Multi-Dimensional Monitoring of Your Cloud Environments 13 Federal Spotlight: Mark Hopson, Innovations Specialist, Acquisitions at GSA 14 Transforming Government through the Cloud and the Digital Workplace 17

How Application Performance Monitoring Improves Service Delivery 21 Not Getting Stung by the Cloud 25 State & Local Spotlight: Elayne Starkey, Delaware CISO 26 Leveraging Cloud Technology to Provide a Better Customer Experience 29 Why the Hybrid Cloud Model is the Best of Both Worlds 33 Conclusion 34 About & Acknowledgments 35

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

Executive Summary A handful of years ago, the term “cloud computing” was almost as nebulous as the fluffy white things in the sky. Today it’s taken government information technology departments by storm, enabling agencies at the federal, state and local levels to accomplish goals much faster and cheaper than they could have imagined. With those kinds of benefits, it’s easy to see why cloud was welcomed with open arms. Federal agencies are expected to spend more than $2 billion on cloud computing services out of a total of $80 billion in information technology spending in fiscal 2016, according to the CIO Council’s State of Federal IT report issued in January 2017. Worldwide, cloud is big business. Consider these statistics: Morgan Stanley says Microsoft’s cloud products will make up 30 percent of the company’s revenue by 2018, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) brought in $7.88 billion in cloud revenue in 2015. Overall, the cloud computing market worldwide grew 28 percent to $110 billion in 2015, and research firm IDC predicts that cloud IT infrastructure spending will grow to $53.1 billion by 2019, making up 46 percent of total expenditures on enterprise IT infrastructure. Now, with these new approaches firmly established, agencies are looking at taking cloud to the next level. Cloud is supporting other technological advancements, such as big data analytics, machine learning and the Internet of Things, for example. As with any evolution in technology, however, these new use cases bring new challenges. In this guide, we will take an in-depth look at seven ways government agencies are taking cloud to the next level – and overcoming the stumbling blocks associated with that. We’ll also look at how we arrived at the current cloud landscape and get tips from Mark Hopson, Innovation Specialist at GSA’s Technology Transformation Service, and Delaware Chief Information Security Officer Elayne Starkey. First up is a look at cloud’s history.

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Cloud Computing: An Overview Cloud computing began making headlines in 2007, when bigger technology companies started talking about it. It meant revolutionary changes to IT, as organizations were able to move much of their storage, computing and application needs out of costly on-premise data centers and into the cloud, or remote data centers. That meant lower costs, but also a sea change in the way organizations procured IT because cloud works best on a subscription model, not the traditional flat-fee approach most organizations were used to. Daunting or not, though, organizations began scrambling to reap cloud’s efficiency-boosting benefits. This includes government agencies. After all, in presenting the cloud-first mandate in 2010, former Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra included a slide that read, “Utilizing ‘Cloud First’ approach, provision solutions on demand at up to 50% lower per unit cost.” But as is often the case with new technology and government’s strict procurement, privacy and security rules, it was slower to take on the new technology. For example, some IT officials weren’t sure what qualified as cloud computing, and NIST had to help define the term. Here’s what it came up with after 15 attempts: “cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.” Once agencies knew what cloud meant, they still had to figure out how to procure and secure it. In fact, procurement and

security have been the main stumbling blocks to government cloud adoption, and continue to be. Cloud migration is one of CIOs’ top priorities, but about 30 percent of CIOs are just getting started with it, while only 5 percent say they are where they want to be, according to the 2016 Federal CIO Survey by the Professional Services Council (PSC). Recognizing these challenges, the government took steps to ease those concerns through a variety of initiatives: →→ The Federal Cloud Computing Strategy explained the benefits of cloud computing, provided a decision framework, highlighted implementation resources and identified roles and responsibilities for adoption. →→ The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) launched as a “government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services.” →→ The General Services Administration added cloud to its Schedule 70 contract to make cloud “easy to find, easy to buy.” State agencies are also heading to the cloud. Cloud strategy, security, data ownership and scalability are part of the State CIO Top Ten Priorities for 2017, according to the National Association of State CIOs. To address procurement issues, the National Association of State Procurement Officials announced in November 2016 the first master agreement awards of the cloud solutions multistate cooperative procurement.

Proceeding With Cloud GSA was the first federal agency to move to the cloud, announcing plans in 2010 to “move its e-mail program to a Web-based system modeled on Google’s popular Gmail program,” according to the Washington Post. Now, 33 percent of CIOs surveyed by PSC say they use cloud in some form or another, and with requirements such as one from the Office of Management and Budget that asks agencies to move at least 15 percent of their infrastructure to the cloud, it’s clear that cloud is no passing trend. (No agency meets OMB’s goal, by the way, according to the January 2017 State of Federal IT report from the CIO Council.) Agencies have proceeded with caution, for the most part, but Forbes Insights predicts adoption will skyrocket, driven by cloud success stories in places such as Miami, which uses cloud to speed building inspections; approval of cloud providers by not just FedRAMP, but the Defense and Health and Human Services departments, FBI and Internal Revenue Service; and growing comfort with cloud. Plus, there are ringing endorsements like this one from Federal CIO Tony Scott: “I think today the better bet is get to the cloud as quick as you can because you’re guaranteed almost to have better security there than you will in any private thing you can do.” Agencies’ use of cloud is not without its cons, but the pros column gets a significantly higher number of checks, especially when you consider that not only is cloud clearly here to stay, it’s facilitating further technological evolution. In the coming pages of this guide, we’ll look at some of the ways this technology is poised to help government agencies at all levels continue to refine and expedite operations.

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

Cloud Computing: A Timeline There is some debate over cloud’s origins. Some say J.C.R. Licklider, who enabled the development of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network in 1969, was the first to mention an “intergalactic computer network” in that same decade, according to Computer Weekly. Others say a computer scientist named John McCarthy proposed the idea of computation being delivered as a public utility, the article states. Either way, cloud can be traced to the 1960s, although it really took off in the 1990s, when bandwidth became more available. Here’s a look at what’s happened in the public sector since then.

December 2010 Then-U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra issues the Federal Cloud Computing Strategy, which becomes known as Cloud First and is “intended to accelerate the pace at which the government will realize the value of cloud computing by requiring agencies to evaluate safe, secure cloud computing options before making any new investments.”

February 2010 The Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI) is announced to reduce the number of data centers in an effort to save money on hardware, software and operations, and to promote more efficient and environmentally friendly options.

2010 6

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December 2011______

Then-Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel issues a memo establishing FedRAMP to “provide a cost-effective, risk-based approach for the adoption and use of cloud services by making [certain standards] available to Executive departments and agencies.”

2010 The General Services Administration opens the Cloud Computing Services Program Management Office to help agencies meet Cloud First mandates.

2011

October 2014 The National Institute of Standards and Technology issues the final version of the U.S. Government Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap, Volumes I and II, laying out 10 requirements for federal cloud adoption, including “developing international standards, security solutions, and clear and consistent categories of cloud services.”

June 2016

FedRAMP releases High Baseline Requirements “to protect some of the government’s most sensitive, unclassified data in cloud computing environments.”

January 2014____ February 2017

Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) launch the Cloud Computing Caucus, a nonprofit advisory group to support cloud efforts.

FedRAMP releases for public comment its Tailored baseline, intended to speed the authorization of low-risk cloud services for government use.

2015

September 2012

To help make__ cloud technologies easier to buy, GSA adds cloud to its Schedule 70.

August 2016

VanRoekel issues the Digital Government Strategy to push for a more mobile government workforce, procure and manage IT more intelligently and use data to spur innovation.

2012

2014

The Office of Management and Budget issues a memo establishing the Data Center Optimization Initiative to supersede FDCCI and comply with the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act while pushing agencies to optimize, rather than consolidate, data centers to potentially save more than $1 billion over two years.

2015

2016

2017 Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

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Big Data & Analytics 8

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Data Center Infrastructure

Enterprise Applications

Cyber Security

Industry Spotlight

How You Can Leverage Cloud-as-a-Service at Your Agency An interview with Kurt Steege, Chief Technology Officer, ThunderCat By now, most agencies have moved some or all of their data to the cloud. Whether it is a public, private, or hybrid solution, cloud offers governments the ability to consolidate their physical datacenters and to store data virtually in a cost effective and secure way. Typically, cloud solutions have been delivered to fit an organization’s computing resource requirements at the time of purchase. However, many agencies are finding that their evolving needs aren’t being met by one-size-fits all solutions.

“On the other hand, when you talk about the acquisition of cloud or a services based infrastructure, you are able to get a product that has already been vetted for 80 to 90 percent of those requirements,” he explained. “You don’t have to retest it because it has already gone through federal and agency specific security tests and is ready to be deployed.” As a result, agencies are using less time and less money, allowing them to spend more on other initiatives that provide value to their mission.

As a result, vendors are looking for ways to provide agile cloud services that adjust to governments’ needs as their computing resources grow or shrink. In order to better understand this, GovLoop sat down with Kurt Steege, Chief Technology Officer at ThunderCat, a systems integrator that brings an innovative approach to solving datacenter challenges.

However, it is hard for agencies to reap these benefits of the asa-service model on their own. Steege explained that partnerships are critical to government organizations effective adoption of a cloud service solution. “At ThunderCat, we like to take on a trusted advisor role where agencies come to us with a problem and we can give them advice to help them solve it,” Steege said. “I think that’s what really sets us apart, we do what we can to drive ours and the government’s mutual missions of protecting the American public.”

When cloud solutions first hit the market, Steege explained, governments were initially a little slow to adopt. However, once agencies started adopting cloud solutions, many looked at them as a system replacement, tried to determine their computing resource requirements up front, and adopted “out of the box” cloud models that weren’t scalable as agencies’ needs evolved. This is problematic, as agencies were wasting money on services they weren’t utilizing. Today, agencies must change their mindset towards cloud in order to overcome this challenge. “We need to start thinking about clouds as services that can be relied upon to deliver workloads. In the same vein, we can begin to look at different “cloud-as-a-service” solutions to provide something that is needed and that maintains a high level of service throughout the implementation of the solution,” Steege said. Viewing cloud through a services lens enables agencies to use solutions that are scalable and elastic and able to provision resources as they are needed and on demand through software orchestration—a function that is key to agencies meeting mission needs effectively. In addition to the agility it offers, switching to a services-based model also allows agencies to become more cost and time efficient. “One of the biggest benefits of moving to a services based architecture is the reduced cost,” Steege said. By switching to a service, agencies aren’t only saving money on the initial price tag of solutions, but on the time that it takes to get these solutions up and running. That’s because the procurement and security cycles for acquiring and configuring infrastructure are often times consuming and cumbersome. Steege explained that the process to get new infrastructure built and running takes a lot of time because agencies must get every element certified to meet agency or federal government requirements.

One way that ThunderCat helps agencies helps solve services based issues is by connecting governments with other governments. “We’ve gotten folks together with other government agencies and explain that they are facing similar situations and we broker those government-to-government discussions,” Steege explained. By providing partnership options to agencies from across the sectors, ThunderCat can facilitate more seamless and effective adoption of as-a-service solutions. They also work with agencies to research and recommend solutions that match their individual needs. Companies like VMware have also adapted to meet the needs of government agencies by helping to build and support multiple cloud architectures across public, private, hybrid and even down to the newer container-based microservices. Looking forward, adopting cloud in an as-a-service model has the potential to play a major role in addressing inefficiencies and improving service delivery in government. By taking full advantage of cloud-as-a-service benefits, agencies can maximize capacity utilization and improve IT flexibility and responsiveness all while minimizing the costs it takes to do so.

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

7 Ways to Take Cloud to the Next Level Now that we understand where cloud has been, let’s look at where it’s going. The next section of this guide will cover seven ways government agencies at all levels can take cloud to the next level. We start by defining what each approach is and how it works. Next, we look at a use case to see how it applies in the real world. Like what you see? We provide general tips for implementing the same approach at your agency. You might notice that the innovative approaches relate to one another. For instance, we talk generally about the expansion of as-a-service offerings and then discuss the specifics of containers-as-a-service and serverless computing, which is also known as function-as-a-service. Similarly, we explain how different cloud models might be better suited to different workloads, while agencies are also finding that using multiple cloud vendors is a better approach for managing cloud needs. Here’s a look at what to expect in the coming pages.

1. Cloud as a Mission Plan:

4. Different Cloud Models for Different Workloads:

Agency officials are realizing that cloud is not just the IT department’s responsibility. Now, agency divisions and employees at all levels are joining the conversation to collaborate on ways cloud computing can help meet missions.

You wouldn’t wear a pair of stilettos to run a marathon, right? Cloud works the same way. Agencies need to find the model that best fits their workloads because it might not be the same one for every need.

2. Cloud, Big Data and Machine Learning:

5. Contracting With Multiple Cloud Vendors:

Individually, these three technologies have been revolutionizing the IT landscape, enabling agencies to provide more services faster and at lower costs. But they also work well together. Find out how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Again, one size doesn’t fit all. Set clear service-level agreements and see how they match up with what providers offer. This helps avoid vendor lock-in and can be a fail-safe if things don’t work out with one.

3. FedRAMP, Security and the Cloud:

Cloud is enabling more aaS offerings, which in turn means faster development, fewer barriers to use and more efficient operations for government agencies. With benefits like those, cloud shows its staying power.

Security tops IT shops’ list of cloud concerns, so government officials decided to make buying secure cloud services easier by putting them through a rigid vetting process before agencies procure them. For many CIOs, this is still a touchy subject. For instance, agencies and vendors alike find that the approval process takes too long, but the FedRAMP Program Management Office recognizes those concerns and continues efforts to address them in the form of FedRAMP High, Accelerated and Tailored.

6. Expansion of as-a-Service Offerings:

7. Tech to Watch: Containers-as-a-service and serverless computing are emerging as the next cloud-based technology to make IT managers’ jobs easier and more effective. By taking more off IT managers’ plates, these technologies free them to focus on mission-critical tasks.

No matter what approach you take to get the most out of what cloud has to offer now and in the future, the one certainty is cloud can’t be ignored. As cloud computing matures to enable these additional use cases, Kundra’s words in a keynote speech he made at Brookings in April 2010 resonate: “As the world’s largest consumer of information technology and as stewards of taxpayer dollars, the federal government has a duty to be a leader in pioneering the use of new technologies that are more efficient and economical.”

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How it Works:

Cloud as a Mission Plan What it Means: Today, departments and employees at all levels have a stake in cloud, not just the IT department. Whether it’s employees gaining access to telework or a complete revamp of how an agency operates, cloud now touches everything. One place that’s especially evident is in agencies’ business offices, where officials are finding that to meet missions, they need to work with the IT office to ensure that services are being delivered the way internal workers and external customers expect them to be.

At the Veterans Affairs Department, officials recognized that applications based on monolithic, fullstack architectures don’t cut it in the age of the cloud. But instead of leaving it up to IT decision-makers to figure out a new way, they put together a business plan in July 2016 that lays a framework for cloudbased microservices, which VA defines as a single business function that delivers one business capability, is loosely coupled, independently deployable and vendor-neutral. “VA has begun to address the challenges of rapidly changing business needs and reduced development timeframes by embracing agile software development practices with its continued emphasis on consolidating IT infrastructure and use of enterprise IT services, including Enterprise Shared Services (ESS) and cloud-based solutions,” the document states. “In concert with these changes, VA will adopt a microservices architectural style leveraging agile development techniques for both existing and new software projects.”

How You Can Do This Too: →→ “Review, revise, and develop policy in the context of the global business and technical model enabled by cloud computing and other enabling technologies,” according to the U.S. Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap, Vol. I. The reason this is necessary, the document states, is that if the business side doesn’t get involved in cloud policy, “technology limits become (inappropriately) the default creator of policy as opposed to an implementation tool.” →→ A business case analysis is a crucial step in the decision-making process when evaluating cloud readiness, according to GSA’s Best Business Practices for U.S. Government Cloud Computing Adoption. A solid analysis includes an executive summary introducing the strategy, an overview focusing on the reasoning for the strategy, assumptions and constraints, a list of the applications under consideration for migration and a concept of operations.

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

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Industry Spotlight

Creating Multi-dimensional Monitoring of Your Cloud Environments An interview with Shiva Raja, U.S. Public Sector OnCommand Insight Consulting Systems Engineer, NetApp Cloud services has long been gaining traction amongst agencies looking to create a more efficient government with cost-effective storage and data management solutions that let those agencies do more with less. Agencies know that with a secure cloud solution, they can deploy a cloud infrastructure that accelerates time-to-market with innovative public services and increases operational efficiency and flexibility while optimizing costs. But as use of cloud services mature across government, more and more agencies are using multi-vendor solutions for their cloud technology. This makes perfect sense – there are often different requirements and use cases for the kind of technology and cloud required across organizations, and one vendor may not fit all needs. However, the increasing use of multi-vendor solutions across an agency can create challenges, particularly in the holistic monitoring of all platforms. To discuss how agencies can overcome these issues, GovLoop sat down with Shiva Raja, U.S. Public Sector OnCommand Insight Consulting Systems Engineer at NetApp, a company who helps service providers envision, deploy, and evolve their IT environments. “There might be certain agencies that really don’t want to be dependent on a single vendor, and they want to be vendor agnostic,” Raja explained. “Because while they might appreciate the features of a particular vendor, they don’t want to be tied to just one. So, for more flexibility, they might take a multiple vendor approach for their cloud solutions.” But with this approach, Raja explained that the growing diversity of platforms, vendors, and protocols in large data centers makes managing and monitoring the enterprise data center infrastructure difficult. At the same time, IT leaders are feeling the added pressure of delivering information technology as a service by using their own private clouds, which need to be competitive with public cloud offerings. The issues that IT professionals face today go beyond optimizing cost, increasing efficiency, and mitigating risk. Government IT professionals have to address a new set of challenges from securing data to offering seamless data services – challenges that are forcing IT teams to respond more quickly to business- and mission-critical demands with multiple clouds environments. The solution is to invest in a multi-dimensional monitoring capability of private and hybrid cloud environments. Having access to in-depth analysis, characterization and metering of workloads on all layers of the datacenter will constantly help and guide agencies in an iterative process of cost-optimization, riskmitigation and quick-adoption of existing and new technologies.

“Multi-dimensional monitoring gives you an end-to-end view from your compute, to your storage, and beyond,” Raja said. “This insures that if there are any performance issues, you’ll have the ability to track who’s the culprit and take the appropriate steps to remediate the issue.” NetApp’s OnCommand Insight is one such tool agencies should consider adopting. The tool manages and analyzes physical and virtual IT environments with heterogeneous compute, network, and storage solutions across the domain from multiple vendors. It allows agencies to monitor and manage multivendor hybrid cloud IT infrastructure to gain better insights across the data center. It also takes the risk out of complex technology migrations, such as moving to a hybrid cloud, by identifying which workloads are candidates for cloud migration. Additionally, OnCommand Insight offers reporting capabilities that deliver information about compute and storage resource allocation trends and capacity consumption trends that accurately forecast the overall utilization trends, all of which helps agencies better understand their data centers’ ecosystems. In turn, this allows them to better predict the usage they will need to more efficiently deliver services to citizens. “OnCommand Insight actually has the ability to monitor your compute and storage resources, regardless of where it resides,” Raja said. “This lets you look at your resources no matter where it is – on premise, off premise, or both. Plus, you also have the ability to manage your business data through NetApp’s crown jewel offering “Clustered Data ONTAP, on-premises, off-premises or both, and that ability really is something unique.” OnCommand Insight provides flexible, efficient management for heterogeneous environments. Because it requires no agents, installation is straightforward and nondisruptive. Installed storage and SAN devices are continually monitored, and detailed information is collected for full visibility of your entire storage environment. Cloud services is undergoing rapid adoption and evolution by government agencies. By evolving existing IT infrastructures to include cloud capabilities, agencies are positioned to achieve significant operational and cost benefits in the delivery of agency services. To successfully make the transition to this new computing model, NetApp enables agencies to achieve their mission goals and supports their choices of vendor specific technologies in storage, and compute.

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

Federal Spotlight

Mark Hopson

Innovation Specialist, Acquisitions at General Services Administration Cloud is a complex technology. Whether it’s how best to use it, implementing it, procuring it or securing it, government agencies are constantly working to make cloud computing easier while also maximizing its benefits. One of those agencies is GSA’s Technology Transformation Service (TTS), whose teams address cloud in myriad ways.

need for those types of large up-front acquisitions. A cloud infrastructure-as-a-service provider is already providing near-commodity pricing by taking advantage of economies of scale. Whether it’s two groups each buying a resource for 10 cents, or one group buying two of those resources for 20 cents, the cost is largely equivalent.”

“Historically, the evolution of technology has been from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘need to provide’ scenario,” said Mark Hopson, Innovation Specialist at TTS. “If government’s virtual services fail, it can have a real impact on citizens — everything from trying to acquire food stamps to feed their family, to someone who can’t download their tax filings from the IRS. Our government can support the nation with digital services that positively impact people’s lives.”

TTS’ Office of Acquisitions is working to refresh procurement methods to better mesh with cloud and digital services. Additionally, its Office of Products and Programs uses the cloud to provide products and services such as digital research, content hosting, communication delivery and FedRAMP. To address agencies’ common infrastructure and compliance needs, TTS’s 18F built cloud.gov as a cloud service.

Cloud adoption is strongest at federal agencies that are undergoing or have completed IT modernization initiatives, Hopson said. Several struggles continue to hold agencies back. One is that they project physical constraints on a digital system, Hopson said.

Security is another challenge. Many CIOs who have a data center think they need to have the cloud, as in a single entity with a single account where everything runs, Hopson said. “However, cloud’s commodity appeal and open standards approach means that a developer can run a replica of the environment on their laptop, completely isolating the impact of any changes they may make,” he said. “Once the code is ‘checked in,’ a new replica of the

“The federal government is normally concerned about volume pricing and bulk discounts,” he said. “However, cloud-based systems largely negate the

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environment — not just the application — could be created in a completely separate ‘cloud account’ for testing. Then the security team can replicate the infrastructure for isolated testing and analysis, much like malware analysis and forensic experts do using virtual machines.” Cloud may be a fairly new technology, but it didn’t get to be a major one on its own. Initiatives such as IPv6 – the latest IP version – and network consolidation called for by the Homeland Security Department’s Trusted Internet Connections initiative were two important enablers. “Without faster networks and the government seeding industry with demand for next-gen internet technologies, solutions such as cloud services might not have become so appealing so quickly,” Hopson said. By shifting their mindset from physical to digital IT, taking advantage of the adoption assistance that federal programs offer and experimenting with cloud, agencies will be able to reap real benefits. Cloud isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it’s only enabling more advancement. “Thinking about the role and impact of new innovations like artificial intelligence, machine learning and virtual reality means agencies can explore the ways in which technology can be part of their DNA, even if they utilize cloud, and stop buying physical hardware,” Hopson said. “‘Cloud’ is a means to an end of making government more effective and efficient. Our goal is to help the federal government provide real benefits to Americans in a timely and modern manner.”

Current Landscape “We use and develop cloud platforms to help federal agencies serve the public more efficiently,” said Hopson. “The federal government needs easier, cheaper and faster ways to deliver functionality, such as internal information-tracking tools or content management for complex public-facing websites. Innovation in federal cloud computing must include carefully listening to, and serving the needs of, the many federal teams that deliver important services with limited staff and budget.” Many agencies are migrating to the cloud, which means that the Office of Acquisitions is working to modernize procurement methods for the cloud. Historically, procurement cycles and policies were focused on an outsourcing model of large dollar value, long duration purchases to single suppliers. There was a focus on minimizing risk through extensive up-front work and preparation. To leverage the transformative potential of the cloud, the balance has shifted toward testing instead of voluminous documentation. Most of the federal government’s current strategic vehicles are designed for a world of material and supply, not digital services. This can be a challenge when trying to buy commercial cloud. The Office of Products and Programs leverages the cloud to provide a number of products and services including digital search, content hosting, communication delivery, digital analytics and FedRAMP. The team leverages practical experience delivering government-wide services to help inform broader perspectives on procedures, best practices and federal policies.

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

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Industry Spotlight

Transforming Government through the Cloud and the Digital Workplace An interview with Apollo Gonzalez, Chief Technology Officer, Catapult Information technology is an enabler that has changed the way agencies perform their mission, but the growing complexity of IT infrastructures has compromised both functionality and internal collaboration. Especially in large organizations, it can be difficult to find the right people or information to complete a task. Government has been using the cloud for less than a decade, but it is already helping agencies tackle this challenge. By connecting people and information within a secure, mobile, cloud-hosted environment, government agencies can create a digital workplace that drive cross-departmental collaboration and facilitate efficient business processes. Apollo Gonzalez, Chief Technology Officer at Catapult, a company that provides application development, enterprise solutions and infrastructure services, has been instrumental in implementing digital workplace solutions. In an interview with GovLoop, he explained why the cloud is key to these solutions and how the digital workplace benefits employees and constituents alike. According to Gonzalez, the cloud makes it easier to create digital workplace solutions because it offers a stable infrastructure that is fully managed by vendors, and accessible to multiple stakeholders. “Digital solutions and the cloud, together, are a perfect marriage,” Gonzalez said. “Technology companies give agencies the service they need and have implemented it a thousand times. They know exactly how it works, where it needs to be improved, how you should use it, and they are constantly making it better.” This means that agencies can easily update its digital content and disseminate information without worrying about development, provisioning of sites, or testing. Cloud-based solutions, such as Catapult’s digital workplace offering Fuse, come largely pre-built at less cost and effort to agencies, and leverage the experience and manpower of partners to assist with content management and user adoption strategies. In government, employees are constantly looking for ways to share information across the agency. Gonzalez sees the digital workplace, enabled by the cloud, as a way to streamline processes so that agency staff can retrieve data quicker and collaborate more effectively. Cloud and digital workplace solutions allow employees to access information securely and easily in one location, use powerful search tools to find pertinent documents, and communicate across teams.

Digital workplace environments can even help agencies recruit and empower the next generation of civil servants. Also a college professor at the University of Houston, Gonzalez has found that recent college graduates, “expect that the environment that they work in during school will be what they see when they go work for a corporation or government entity.” Agencies can attract millennials, and boost engagement and productivity amongst a multi-generational workforce, by providing employees cloudbased tools where they can effortlessly share assets, and the flexibility to work where and how they want. In addition to the benefits a digital workplace offers employees, it can also help improve constituent experiences with government. By creating platforms that are mobile, responsive and intuitive, citizens are more likely to participate in agency programs and services. Further, analytic reporting can help measure customer satisfaction and allows agencies to use insights to improve services and overall efficiency. Finally, Gonzalez said that digital workplace solutions “as a service” assist overloaded IT teams by streamlining requests, minimizing support tickets, and automating repetitive tasks, freeing up IT personnel to focus on more strategic initiatives. Catapult is currently implementing Fuse, their digital workplace solution “as a service” at multiple agencies. Because of the cloud, Catapult can constantly improve and update the system to the scale government needs, without the huge investment in time and money associated with solutions built from scratch. Once implemented though, the Fuse digital workplace can transform an agency from the inside out. “A digital workplace should connect people, process, information, and technology to create a more productive, innovative, and engaged workforce,” Gonzalez said. That’s why Catapult focuses on building long-term partnerships so they can continually support agencies’ digital workplace solutions, allowing agency leaders to focus on their organization’s mission instead of worrying about the back-end systems. The cloud is crucial for enabling the digital workplace, because it allows agencies to leverage private sector knowledge, resources, and manpower. The digital workplace improves agency efficiency by empowering employees, facilitating open communication with constituents, and by automating operation processes within the organization. Cloud-based tools make government employees more efficient at their jobs so they can more effectively deliver services to the American people.

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

How it Works:

Cloud, Big Data & Machine Learning What it Means: Cloud is a formidable force in the IT world, but big data and machine learning are gaining ground in large part because of, well, cloud computing. Without cloud’s scalability, storing and analyzing vast amounts of data would be next to impossible. Machine learning, or artificial intelligence, draws on both technologies to fuel yet another growing field: predictive analytics. “It’s basically computers learning from past behavior about how to do certain business processes better and deliver new insights into how your organization really functions,” according to PC Magazine.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has plenty of reasons to use predictive analytics, whether it’s forecasting flu outbreaks nationwide or the spread of the Zika virus globally. But for a recent project, CDC went to the city level. After HIV cases related to opioid use surged in Scott County, Ind., in 2014, CDC turned to the cloud-based Collaborative Advanced Analytics and Data Sharing (CAADS), which incorporates tools from big data partners and machine learning, to try to predict where to focus prevention efforts. CAADS is a central tool, providing various analyses through one solution. Using it, CDC ingested, cleaned, analyzed and modeled a range of disparate data related to the outbreak. The data included HIV outbreak clusters, geographic factors, epidemiological patterns and drug resistance data, according to Datanami. Using CAADS’ machine learning function, CDC ran scenarios on the potential spread of HIV among intravenous drug-using populations to predict where problem areas exist. The agency then provided recommendations to local public health officials on how to address the issue.

How You Can Do This Too: →→ Know that you can’t plug in a new technology and immediately start making forecasts. You need a foundation of historical data that AI algorithms can study and learn from to make predictions. →→ Consider the type of data you’ll need and where it resides. For instance, do you require structured data, unstructured data or both? Is it all archived within your organization, or do you need to collaborate with others? →→ Don’t go it alone: Partner with experts in academia or the nonprofit and private sectors to maximize expertise.

How it Works:

FedRAMP, Security & Cloud What it Means: FedRAMP’s goal is to make it easier for federal agencies to procure vetted, trusted cloud solutions from third-party vendors. In short, it takes much of the guess- and legwork away from already overstretched government workers. In 2016, FedRAMP released additions: High Baseline Requirements to help agencies use cloud services for their most critical data, and FedRAMP Accelerated to reduce authorization wait time from six to 12 months to three to six.

On Feb. 2, 2017, GSA’s innovation team, 18F, announced that Cloud.gov had become FedRAMPauthorized through FedRAMP Accelerated. Cloud. gov’s purpose is to give “agencies a fast and easy way to host and update websites (and other web applications, such as APIs), so their employees and contractors can focus on their missions instead of wrangling the infrastructure and compliance requirements common to federal systems,” according to an announcement. Translation: Agencies can use Cloud.gov to host low- and moderate-impact cloud systems – the majority of federal systems. 18F began preparing for the FedRAMP process in March 2016, nearly a year after announcing Cloud. gov, and began its review with the Joint Authorization Board teams five months later. The final authorization came through in January 2017, within the six-month estimated time frame for the Accelerated process. “This is a success for the FedRAMP team, which has been carefully improving their process to help make more cloud services available to government teams,” 18F’s team said in its announcement. Additionally, Cloud.gov is the first completely open-source service to achieve FedRAMP authorization.

How You Can Do This Too: →→ To initiate a FedRAMP authorization, take inventory of all your cloud services and create effective cloud computing contracts, according to FedRAMP.gov. “The agency must work with [cloud service providers] to update contractual requirements and determine the path each cloud system will take in order to become FedRAMP-authorized.” →→ Another option: Use authorization packages that have already been completed. →→ Either way, your authorizing official will need to decide whether to grant the system in question an authority to operate within your agency. →→ Plan for continuous monitoring of cloud services at your agency and provide quarterly reports on them to OMB.

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

A GovLoop Guide

Industry Spotlight

How Application Performance Monitoring Improves Service Delivery An interview with Scot Wilson, Senior Director of Advanced Technology Group, Riverbed and Mark Zalubas, Chief Technology Officer, Merlin International As government looks for more effective ways to drive an efficient citizen experience, more agencies are adopting cloud solutions. In particular, public-sector organizations are increasingly leveraging the cloud to host applications, making delivery of services more convenient and cost-effective. While this allows citizens to more seamlessly engage with government applications, they don’t always understand everything that goes into maintaining the back-end of those applications. If an end user has a negative interaction with an application, studies show they’ll refuse to use the app going forward, which results in higher costs to interact with the agency’s more expensive human customer service resources. Application performance management (APM) is key to ensuring that citizens consistently get effective and efficient interactions from government applications. To learn more about APM, GovLoop talked to Scot Wilson, Senior Director of Advanced Technology Group at Riverbed, a cloud solutions company, and Mark Zalubas, Chief Technology Officer at Merlin International, a provider of system integration services and solutions. By moving hosting of applications to 3rd-party clouds, agencies realize greater flexibility, time-to-benefits, and cost economiesof-scale, over hosting apps in their physical data centers. The data center part of the IT stack is no longer their responsibility, and they only need to pay for the resources they consume. However, as the maturity of the cloud develops, the notion of ‘moving to the cloud’ will morph into a more sophisticated understanding and the complexity of managing applications in the cloud will increase exponentially. “What folks struggle with when they move to the cloud is the loss of direct hands-on control of, and insight into, where their applications and data reside,” Zalubas explained. “The cloud itself is a simple concept, but it grows more complex as use of it matures and control and visibility become more difficult.” Lack of application visibility across disparate clouds is particularly concerning to government agencies because it hampers IT’s ability to deliver high SLAs to their constituents. At a minimum, agencies need a solution that allows them to holistically monitor their apps hosted in a cloud, in a hybrid model, and across multiple clouds to fully understand how their applications are performing. Application performance management is one way agencies can gain a holistic view across critical parts of the application delivery chain so they can better manage performance. “What APM does for agencies is make the many disparate parts of a distributed-

architecture application look like a singular thing,” Zalubas explained. APM offers agencies a single view to monitor and identify where problems are occurring. “Simply sounding an alarm that something is off does not move things forward,” Wilson said. “You have to be able to point to data that is actionable and pinpoint where the problem is so someone can take action and repair it.” The visibility that APM offers allows agencies to isolate problems in the back-end of cloud-based applications and fix them without interrupting citizen services. However, APM does not have to come in after cloud deployment. Agencies can start with it as an application development platform. “APM becomes the platform that allows you to select pieces and see how they perform and interoperate with each other and whether the end goal is going to be achieved before it is put into production,” Zalubas said. This ensures that agencies have insights about an application before it is deployed so they don’t waste money and resources on ineffective apps. For agencies looking to improve APM, Riverbed and Merlin provide, in tandem, an integrated solution. “Riverbed puts the platform together that connects agencies to the cloud and provides visibility from the click of the mouse all the way to the disk,” Wilson said. “Wherever that bit of information is, we can monitor the entire transaction and give agencies a way to programmatically attack back-end problems.” Merlin’s role in improving APM is to take the technologies that Riverbed offers and apply them knowledgeably to deliver performance and availability for agencies’ applications. “We work with agencies to deliver mission critical service levels for functionality, performance, and availability across a wide variety of applications,” Zalubas explained. “These applications are complicated and we provide the tools and expertise to give agencies the insights necessary to optimize and troubleshoot, which in turn gives them confidence that their apps are performing as anticipated and providing the level of service for which they are intended.” Ultimately, the nexus of Riverbed and Merlin’s solutions and services enable government agencies to offer application managers and end users a singular experience across complex application architectures. “At the end of the day, we work to seamlessly connect everything together, provide visibility and wrap in acceleration in application development and deployment,” Wilson concluded.

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

How it Works:

Contracting With Multiple Cloud Providers What it Means: Agencies are turning more frequently to hiring more than one vendor to provide various cloud services. One reason for this is to regain some of the control they feel they lose after migrating to the cloud, but the basis of this trend, according to CloudTech, is “mixing and matching the best-ofbreed solutions and services from different cloud providers to create the most suitable solution.”

A GovLoop Guide

It took two years for Federal Communications Commission CIO David Bray to move the agency to a purely public cloud using commercial service providers after demonstrating to FCC leaders that the agency was wasting 85 percent of its IT budget on maintaining legacy systems, according to Meritalk. FCC uses 14 cloud providers. A main reason for using multiple vendors is “to give the agency options in case one of them drastically increases its prices,” the article states. To understand FCC’s cloud migration accomplishment, consider that when Bray came on board at FCC in 2013, the agency had 207 systems, more than half of which were at least a decade old, according to Nextgov. Other stats to note: FCC can implement a prototype application in 48 hours, not six to seven months, and it now spends only half its IT budget on maintaining older systems. “If you are wedded to legacy systems, you are trying to turn a battleship very, very slowly,” Bray said at a Feb. 8, 2017, Cloud Computing Caucus Advisory Group meeting.

How You Can Do This Too: →→ Get buy-in from agency leaders who understand the benefits cloud brings. →→ Identify your specific needs – public, private or hybrid cloud environment, for example – and determine which providers best meet each need. →→ Consider sponsoring providers to expedite their FedRAMP authorization process, Bray said.

How it Works: Just as a single cloud provider may not be the answer for your agency, there’s no one-size-fits-all cloud model. That’s why there are three main ones: infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-aservice (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS). Let’s look examples of workloads best suited for them:

Different Cloud Models for Different Workloads What it Means: Using multiple cloud environments for various workloads has several benefits, including driving better value and flexibility, providing redundancy and avoiding vendor lock-in, according to TechTarget. Of course, there are challenges, too, such as integrating those different clouds and tracking costs and billing in pay-per-use setups.

IaaS – Agencies can provision processing, storage, networks and other fundamental computing resources while maintaining control over operating systems, storage and deployed applications, according to NIST. Example: “The Federal Geospatial Data Clearinghouse’s GeoCloud Initiative used IaaS capabilities to deploy services and solutions, improving public access to geospatial data beyond in-house capabilities,” according to Washington Technology. PaaS – This provides an environment for developers to create applications using programming languages, libraries, services and tools supported by the provider, NIST states. Example: Using PaaS for its Vulnerability Assessment System, the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency saw a 458 percent increase in scanning and an 86 percent reduction in cost per scan, Washington Technology reports. SaaS – Users can use the provider’s applications running on cloud. Example: The Army’s Experience Center turned to cloud for a recruitment-tracking platform and projects that “the SaaS-based application will reduce costs to $8 million from $83 million and increase productivity by 33 percent,” according to Washington Technology.

How You Can Do This Too: →→ Determine the workloads you’re looking to offload and ask yourself if they’re suitable for cloud environments. →→ Check that the plan aligns with the agency’s mission, business requirements and digital transformation strategy. →→ Create clear service-level agreements that set attainable and measureable requirements for cloud providers – and have an exit plan if the vendor doesn’t meet them.

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

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Learn more at granicus.com.

Industry Spotlight

Not Getting Stung by the Cloud An interview with Bob Ainsbury, Chief Product Officer, Granicus The expression “think small” might only be inspirational to nanoengineers, but that approach is actually also a hallmark of success for agencies moving to the cloud. Why? Because when done right, cloud technologies will change the way you operate. Think about it: instead of an internet-accessed version of a traditional call center, thanks to the cloud, you might be able to text message answers.

Next, Ainsbury highlighted that although wholesale adoption of the cloud in an agency can be difficult, transitioning individual functions or processes to cloud solutions is not as daunting. Many times, agencies want to have one big transformation of systems, but according to Ainsbury, successful cloud migrations actually happen when agencies decide to change small, singular functions first.

Those possibilities means cloud disrupts your business practices. That disruption can mean success for your agency – when undertaken correctly. But if you don’t adopt cloud according to the “think small” approach and other best practices, you can get stung.

That’s why he advised that agencies phase in the use of cloud technologies over time to mitigate the organizational disruption caused by new systems and business processes. “There should be an incremental model, with minimum viable adoption initially,” Ainsbury said. “A complementary adoption of cloud solutions would prevent a wholesale disruption, which is important because agencies must change and adapt not just IT-wise, but organizationally.”

To understand government best practices for adopting cloud solutions, GovLoop sat down with Bob Ainsbury, Chief Product Officer at Granicus, the largest cloud solutions provider for government. In his work, he’s found that focusing on agency missions and outcomes, starting with small adoption projects, and building support for transformations before implementation are three crucial aspects of successful cloud migrations. First, Ainsbury discussed that when selecting, implementing, and using cloud platforms, agencies need to understand how the cloud is advancing the agency mission. The cloud is simply a catalyst for the mission, so leaders need to focus less on the actual product and more on what an agency aims to accomplish with the cloud. “The key strategy to make sure that cloud solutions and migrations don’t become about the product is to always tie back to the impact that you’re trying to achieve,” he explained. “This could be getting more kids into foster homes, or just fewer phone calls coming into an agency call center.” Ainsbury added that mapping the solutions to the mission ensures that frontline employees examine how to best help constituents rather than how to fill out a report. Additionally, Ainsbury advised that training employees to use the cloud to both enable day-to-day processes and create new processes that advance the mission is crucial. By binding the cloud to the mission outcomes, employees are more motivated to adopt cloud solutions and find new ways to incorporate the cloud into everyday customer services. When Granicus assists state and local governments in adopting cloud solutions, they have found that constituents are looking to access more information online like community meeting agendas and videos. That’s why they advise governments to use the cloud to digitize more information and provide more digital services.

Third, Ainsbury recommended that agency leaders work to develop buy-in from frontline staff members and fellow leaders for cloud migrations before formally starting the process. Focusing on the organizational mission and demonstrating the success of smaller cloud solutions can help build a constituency of enthusiasts, but he stressed that making sure employees are motivated from the start is critical to a cloud migration. “Really what you should be doing is embracing the people who will be the influencers of the cloud migration success and deciding what it is you are trying to accomplish,” Ainsbury said. “Do that long before a decision is made on the vendor or other details.” Incorporating enthusiastic employees into the planning and design phase of transformations can ensure that the cloud solutions are fixing common problems experienced among employees that impact the agency mission. It is not beneficial to constituents if agencies adopt the cloud but fail to use it for services and business processes. Agencies at all levels of government need to find ways to migrate IT systems to cloud-based products, but they need to do it in an effective and efficient way. That means that during cloud transformations, agency leaders should continuously tie new solutions to core missions and services, use an incremental model to slowly phase in new processes and platforms, and build an enthusiastic constituency of employees to guide the migration process. Following these keys will help any agency adopt cloud-based solutions as they continue to seek innovative ways to serve citizens.

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

State & Local Spotlight

Elayne Starkey

Delaware Chief Information Security Officer Delaware started using cloud computing six years ago, mainly putting software-as-a-service solutions in place. Today it’s shifting its focus to infrastructureand platform-as-a-service, even studying what it would take to move the state’s core IT infrastructure to the cloud. The reason is simple: Cloud technology has matured to a point that makes it the smarter choice. “Over just five, six years, the space has matured, and I think the cloud vendors are paying much closer attention to the security part of their offering than they ever have before,” said Elayne Starkey, the state’s Chief Information Security Officer in the Department of Technology and Information (DTI). “I hesitate to say this, but in some cases, it’s true that partnering with a Tier 1, [or top], cloud provider that has been focused on security for a long time can actually make us more secure than if it was an onpremise solution. Those are words that did not come out of my mouth easily.” In recognition of vendors’ increased focus on security, Starkey’s office is also revising its “Cloud Security Terms and Conditions” document for the

A GovLoop Guide

fourth time. She expects the new version to be ready later this year. The document is recognizable at many government agencies because it forms the basis of the cloud procurement best practices guide that a task force including the Center for Digital Government, several states and some cloud companies put together. The current version of the document has 13 terms and conditions, down from about 26 in the first iteration. At the top is data ownership. “This is probably one of the most important ones. That’s why it’s No. 1,” Starkey said. “It just basically says that throughout the cloud engagement, the state of Delaware will retain the right and title and the interest to the data. What that means in English, in non-legalese, is basically we’re entrusting the vendor to take our data and protect it, but in the end, it’s our data and we maintain overall responsibility and accountability for that data. At no time are we surrendering ownership of the data.” The document also states that Delaware’s data must never be moved outside the United States. “Believe it or not, if you don’t get all that spelled out up front, the likelihood is pretty high that either the data or

the backup location or the disaster recovery location may be in a data center that’s not even in the United States,” she said. Additionally, the document stipulates that sensitive information, such as personally identifiable information in the form of birth dates, account numbers and Social Security numbers, must be encrypted at rest and in transit.

Road to Success Cloud came to Delaware partly through pitches from vendors, Starkey said. “More and more of them coming along were cloud-based,” she said. As the state’s central IT agency, DTI processes new systems through its Architecture Review Board, which saw cloud’s potential. In 2011, Delaware instituted a cloud-first policy. “It doesn’t mean everything goes to the cloud, but it means from that point forward, we were considering the cloud as an option for every new initiative that came through our office,” Starkey said. “The idea there is we were thinking it’s a credible alternative to the traditional way we’ve delivered IT over the years, and we wanted to put a stake in the ground and embrace it wholeheartedly.” The transition to cloud has had some bumps along the way. One area that remains a challenge is the procurement of cloud technologies. It’s not only a new technology, but a new business approach, too, because cloud solutions often come on a subscription basis, rather than as a flat fee.

Additionally, cloud services are often based on the number of users, which is a shift in thinking, too, said Jason Clarke, Chief of Policy and Communications at DTI. “In the past, you could build an application, you could add as many users as you wanted and it really didn’t have a large effect. Now because you pay per user, it incurs a cost,” Clarke said. “That model just really has to be vetted out to understand what the growth potential is, how those costs affect you and others that may join the team.” “Buying IT is not like buying pens and paper,” Starkey said. “Buying traditional IT like hardware and software is very different from buying cloud services as well, so we’re in the midst of working through those challenges.” Overall, adopting cloud has been game-changing for Delaware. Benefits include faster speed to implementation, a reduction in resources, disaster recovery benefits and hard and soft cost savings, said Starkey, who recommends that other government agencies take a risk-based approach to cloud adoption and implementation. “It’s a situation where governments have to jump in the driver’s seat and hold the providers accountable – the buyer beware, make sure security is an early consideration, all of those things,” she said. “It’s very tempting to just jump in the car and let the cloud vendors drive, but we don’t think that’s the right approach.

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

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Industry Spotlight

Leveraging Cloud Technology to Provide a Better Customer Experience An interview with James Ward, North America Director of State and Local Public Sector, Jay Stewart, National Business Manager, US Public Sector, and Brian Bischoff, Vice President of Cloud Solutions, Genesys Creating an excellent customer experience is critical to organizational success across sectors – but it’s particularly important for government agencies who need to engage with and provide services to their constituents to effectively drive missions. Cloud technology is one tool that can be particularly useful for agencies in cultivating a positive customer experience. In order to better understand how agencies can drive more effective citizen engagement through cloud-based solutions, GovLoop sat down with James Ward, North America Director of State and Local Public Sector, Jay Stewart, National Business Manager, U.S. Public Sector, and Brian Bischoff, Vice President of Cloud Solutions at Genesys, a company that specializes in customer experience and call center technology. Overall, agencies are taking the cue from the private sector and are beginning to make the shift to the cloud to drive more successful citizen experiences, said Bischoff. “The stakes for a better customer experience are higher in government because constituent expectations are being driven by the commercial sector,” he explained. As a result, government organizations have turned to solutions like cloud to fill the expectation gap and provide a customer experience that’s comparable to the private sector. Moving to the cloud allows agencies to provide greater flexibility and efficiency in how they serve their citizens. Cloud is particularly useful because it offers a shorter time to value, meaning it allows agencies to get solutions up and operating in a much shorter period than without the cloud. “In a cloud environment, you are dealing with a platform that is already built and just configuring it for the applicant,” Ward explained. “So in terms of speed to market, the level of effort is typically much shorter.” Additionally, cloud solutions can help government agencies reduce inbound call volume. Ward explained that for the average agency, 30 to 50 percent of their inbound call volume is repeat callers inquiring about a specific process. Government agencies are unique in they generally deal with a specific issue and are able to pinpoint what repeat inbound calls are going to be about. As a result, agencies can use cloud technologies and intelligent customer experience tools like Interactive voice response (IVR) self-service or proactive text communications to let constituents know where they are in the process and reduce inbound calls for the organization. Ward gave the example of driver’s license

renewals and explained for the average Department of Motor Vehicles, 30 percent of their inbound calls are simply people inquiring as to whether information has been received, where are they in process and when can they expect an answer or result. “By leveraging IVR self-service or preempting a request with an outbound text, the person doesn’t need to speak to an agent and the agent’s resources are then reapplied to working on actual office work,” Ward explained. Cloud is also useful for agencies looking to improve their overall customer experience as it enables organizations’ ability to create an omnichannel customer journey. Compared to an on-premise technology where, traditionally, communication channels are disparate, a consolidated cloud contact center platform allows agencies to better measure the customer journey and improve how they interact with constituents. “This means the entire customer journey is consolidated and someone doesn’t have to start over every time they move across available communications channels,” Ward explained. Whether a constituent is connecting to an agency through the phone, web chat, or email, mobile or other options cloud enables a consolidated contact center platform to keep communications consistent and transparent. The biggest benefit of an omnichannel approach is that it improves efficiency across the agency. “If you can self-serve or preempt even 20 percent of your inbound call volume, this is effectively adding 20 percent more resources in the back office. An agency is truly enabled to do more with less,” said Ward. Through an omnichannel cloud solution that Genesys offers, agencies are able to more efficiently serve constituents and solve some of their resource problems with cloud technology. Genesys has designed their CX Platform to be an omnichannel consolidated contact center platform so agencies who leverage their technology have one consolidated queue. “As a result, users are able to move between communication channels, maintain high levels of efficiency, and foster an elevated customer experience,” Ward said. This ultimately allows agencies leveraging cloud technology to improve their customer experience and more effectively drive their mission.

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

How it Works: As part of its Concept of Operations, GSA’s Unified Shared Services Management (USSM) office recently issued four aaS options. “The USSM wants vendors to provide infrastructure- and software-as-a-service, ranging from servers and storage to software management to data management to business application support to much more,” according to Federal News Radio.

Expansion of as-aService Offerings What it Means: Cloud paved the way for the three main models we just looked at, but as more offerings become available as-a-service, or via the internet, the cloud’s role also grows. More aaS offerings mean faster development, fewer barriers to use and simplified, less costly operations, making cloud even more impossible for agencies to ignore.

Specifically, the four approaches are for standard software; transaction processing and software; higher-level software and transaction processing; and transaction processing and data analytics for agencies that need more qualified people to run their existing systems, the article states. The agency, chartered by OMB in 2015, issued a request for proposals covering three of the four on Jan. 3, 2017. “USSM has been emphasizing the importance of SaaS as one of the keys to making the vision work, along with encouraging private sector investment (due to the absence of government investment capital) and enabling the transition from legacy to cloud by shifting from capital to operating budget financing,” John Marshall, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Shared Services Leadership Coalition, said in the article.

How You Can Do This Too: →→ Analyze your infrastructure to understand the solutions your agency uses, operating costs, contractual obligations and how systems interact with one another and with internal and external users. →→ Set a reasonable goal for what you want your agency to achieve through technology. →→ Determine and communicate your as-a-service strategy, which should include information on what processes will go to the cloud, in what time frame and order and what characteristics should be streamlined across adopted solutions.

A GovLoop Guide

Two Up-&Comers: Containersas-aService, Serverless Computing What it Means: Two technologies to keep an eye on in the cloud space are containersas-a-service (CaaS) and serverless computing. The former is so new that a major player in the container space announced its availability only a year ago. Although agencies are starting to see the value of containers – the Agriculture Department’s new website is based on them, along with about 15 other public-facing websites – the as-a-service part is still emerging.

CaaS is a services offering for container-based virtualization that “abstracts the complexities of building a scaled-out platform,” according to NewStack. In the CaaS model, containers are just another service akin to storage or computing power, giving developers more flexibility and IT workers less overhead to manage. CaaS is becoming the new PaaS, according to Forbes. Serverless computing, also known as event-driven computing and function-as-a-service (FaaS), takes CaaS’s abstraction one step further. Where CaaS took away the management of containers, FaaS takes away the containers completely in that developers provide only the code, or function, to run. This additionally reduces the management burden on the IT staff. FaaS doesn’t mean that code runs without servers, however. It means that users don’t have to procure servers or virtual machines for the back-end code to run on. One private-sector expert likened this to a file storage service in which someone saves the file and doesn’t think about whether they need more storage space because the service handles that. “Serverless cloud technologies … are built on containers, but the advantage for us is that we don’t need to manage them,” according to TechBeacon. “We can spend most of our time thinking about code and software architecture instead. It’s the vendor who has to work out the most efficient way to allocate resources and computing capacity, not us.”

How You Can Do This Too: →→ For CaaS, establish a work plan between the development and operations teams so that applications can be built and run anywhere, and define and set up your containers through your cloud vendor’s container service. →→ For FaaS, consider how many applications are cloud-compatible because FaaS might be a better complement to existing delivery models than a replacement.

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

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A GovLoop Guide

Industry Spotlight

Why the Hybrid Cloud Model is the Best of Both Worlds An interview with Chris Wiedemann, Market Intelligence Consultant, immixGroup In government, the use of private and public cloud storage services has expanded in recent years – but both models have potential shortcomings. If government were to exclusively rely on private cloud storage, the system would likely be expensive and inflexible. Meanwhile, if government only used public cloud solutions, there would be a greater risk of data being lost or compromised. The reality for most CIOs demands a hybrid cloud environment – a blend of on-premises, public, private and/or managed clouds. Because of this complex mix, not just any approach to cloud will do. Therefore, government agencies should employ a hybrid cloud delivery model that leverages the benefits of public cloud services such as ease of use and efficiency and the benefits of private cloud services such as increased security. In a recent interview with GovLoop, Chris Wiedemann, Market Intelligence Consultant at immixGroup, a public sector software distributor, shared how agency leaders can develop and implement hybrid cloud solutions that fit their organizational needs. If agencies assess their cloud needs, choose vendors with interoperability, and translate benefits to their constituents, then they will be able to effectively use the hybrid cloud model to transform their organization. The first step to any hybrid cloud migration is to complete a readiness assessment that evaluates what information, data and workflows are currently stored in public or private cloud systems, according to Wiedemann. Then, agencies need to develop migration roadmaps that include a strategic, unified way to manage the transition. This process will also help leaders determine what information can be stored in public cloud environments and what information needs to be more tightly secured in private cloud environments. “Creating a migration roadmap can take a while, but agencies that have successfully completed cloud migrations say that without the legwork upfront, they could not have achieved a scalable, enterprise level migration,” Wiedemann said. Next, agencies need to select private and public vendors for their information, data, and workflows. The most important part of this process though is ensuring that the vendors have interoperable cloud systems. From observing the market, he has found that some providers offer systems with more interoperable capabilities than others, and if an agency selects systems without strong interoperability, then the agency is susceptible to vendor lock. Vendor lock can increase system maintenance costs over time and reduce an agency’s ability to migrate information between cloud systems and providers. That’s why Wiedemann has noticed, “Customers are starting to look at how to successfully

migrate workloads and data into the cloud and ensure that they can move the workloads and data into a different cloud environment, if needed.” The hybrid cloud model is successful because it reduces deployment costs and creates a culture around easy data and workload migration rather than a large-scale agreement with one vendor. immixGroup helps agencies avoid vendor lock by connecting them with providers that offer flexible cloud options. Oracle is unique in the market because of its complete-cloud approach, offering not only PaaS, but also SaaS, IaaS, and public/ private options. Migration to a hybrid cloud model is further enabled by platform-as-a-service technology. The Oracle Cloud Platform offers the functional breadth and depth of services agencies require, along with tools personnel are already familiar with. That allows organizations to take full advantage of the cloud. Oracle’s integrated approach also lets customers easily migrate on-premises applications to the cloud – and back, if that’s what they need. Lastly, Wiedemann advised that government translate the benefits of the hybrid cloud model to their constituents through improved customer service. That means agencies should invest financial savings from migrating to the cloud into advancing the mission and ensuring that their digital services are keeping up with new technology trends. Agencies that embrace cloud-based platforms become nimbler. They can focus on delivering better services more rapidly to their internal and external constituents, without the complexity of managing underlying application platforms and disconnected systems. Developers can build applications more quickly and cost-effectively, citizens can more easily access data that improves their lives, and organizations can enhance employee productivity and automate business processes. By completing a readiness assessment and migration roadmap, selecting vendors with interoperable cloud products, and translating savings and benefits to constituents, agencies can leverage hybrid cloud models to improve information storage and digital services. Neither public or private cloud models perfectly serve government’s needs, but hybrid cloud solutions enabled by platform-as-a-service providers such as Oracle can enhance agencies by ensuring that information, data, and workflows are efficiently managed and effectively secured. “There is finally a realization in government agencies at the leadership and strategic level that hybrid cloud solutions are the inevitable endpoint of where agency IT systems are heading.” Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

Conclusion Cloud computing has had a wild ride to the top of IT departments’ priorities lists. It’s gone from being something that sounds dreamy to a welcome reality, enabling government agencies to operate more efficiently and effectively. Now, a new wave of technology stands at the ready to take advantage of cloud’s benefits to bring about even greater modernization initiatives. The path to the current cloud landscape at the local, state and federal levels has been littered with challenges, especially in the areas of procurement and security. As we saw, though, government officials have found cloud to be such an asset that work to make it easier to buy, implement and use is a continuous process. For instance, FedRAMP’s evolution to embrace high security and accelerated accreditation is only one example of how the federal government is moving quickly to enable cloud. The push and support are necessary as big data analytics, machine learning and more aaS offerings begin to take off. The common denominator among these new technologies is cloud, and they’re emerging to make IT workers’ jobs easier by taking on the tasks of maintenance, for example, freeing employees to concentrate their efforts on more mission-critical tasks. Government workers won’t be the only winners, though. Citizens will come out ahead, too, CIO Scott said last year. “People won’t hate government if it works and if it serves them well,” Scott said. “Digitization starts us down that path.”

A GovLoop Guide

About & Acknowledgments About GovLoop GovLoop’s mission is to “connect government to improve government.” We aim to inspire public-sector professionals by serving as the knowledge network for government. GovLoop connects more than 250,000 members, fostering cross-government collaboration, solving common problems and advancing government careers. GovLoop is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a team of dedicated professionals who share a commitment to connect and improve government. For more information about this report, please reach out to info@govloop.com. govloop.com | @govloop

Thank You Thank you to Catapult, immixGroup, Genesys, Granicus, Merlin International, NetApp, Oracle, Riverbed, Thundercat Technology and VMware for their support of this valuable resource for public-sector professionals.

Author Stephanie Kanowitz, Writer

Designer Kaitlyn Baker, Lead Graphic Designer

Taking Government Cloud Adoption to the Next Level

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A GovLoop Guide