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Cloud migration should b<\/span>e at the top of every Federal CIO\u2019s priority list. [1]<\/a>Cloud technology offers agencies the tools they need to <\/span>drive impact with<\/span> innovation in a rapidly changing digital world. With the cloud, CIOs can bring about digital transformation to <\/span>support agency missions, using technology as the foundation of new approaches to citizen services.<\/span> Cloud resources free up agencies from the burden of legacy infrastructure, increasing efficiency and creating new opportunities. <\/span>CIOs <\/span>need to change<\/span> the way government agencies think about<\/span> the cloud<\/span>, removing obstacles to cloud migration.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A<\/span>dopting new technologies in government agencies can be difficult. <\/span>In government<\/span>, <\/span>as in many companies in the commercial sector, <\/span>a <\/span>change<\/span>–<\/span>resistant <\/span>culture can <\/span>pose a<\/span> challenging<\/span> barrier. <\/span>CIOs <\/span>can bridge the gap <\/span>with <\/span>a clear technology vision<\/span> to<\/span> encourage agency<\/span> wide cloud adoption. By leading the team and encouraging the adoption of new <\/span>mission applications<\/span>, CIOs can empower employees and bring a more efficient method of accomplishing goals. <\/span><\/p>\n To smooth the cloud transition<\/span>,<\/span> CIOs <\/span>need to take<\/span> a <\/span>proactive<\/span> approach <\/span>by <\/span>outlining<\/span> concrete <\/span>reasons<\/span> for<\/span> adoption<\/span> to executive leadership within their respective agencies<\/span>. <\/span>There are <\/span>a number of<\/span> reasons for agencies to migrate to the cloud<\/span>,<\/span> such as reductions in <\/span>capital expenditure for infrastructure<\/span>, increased security<\/span>,<\/span> greater interdepartmental communication,<\/span> flexibility,<\/span> scalability, and overall accessibility. By <\/span>highlighting the<\/span> reasons for cloud migration and <\/span>laying out clear objectives<\/span> for your agency<\/span>, you can build a strategy that is open and transparent<\/span>.<\/span> This will also help guide <\/span>IT leaders in your organization<\/span> through the <\/span>complex<\/span> task of successfully rolling out a cloud implementation strategy. <\/span><\/p>\n In a report from the International Data Corporation<\/span>, <\/span>IDC <\/span><\/i>MaturityScape<\/span><\/i> Benchmark: Cloud in Federal Civilian Agen<\/span><\/i>cies in the United States, 2017<\/span><\/i><\/a>,<\/span><\/i> t<\/span>he organization surveyed <\/span>local, state, and federal agencies that made the transition to cloud technology, and <\/span>tracked their progress <\/span>across different stages in the migration process. <\/span>It found that the<\/span> highest benchmark agencies can achieve is the <\/span>optimized stage<\/span>. <\/span>At this stage, agencies are using the cloud at its full capacity. <\/span>CIOs should be thinking about the cloud not just in terms of <\/span>first steps, <\/span>but also <\/span>in the context of a<\/span> long-term<\/span> strategy to reach the optimized benchmark. <\/span><\/p>\n IDC <\/span><\/b>MaturityScape<\/span><\/b> Benchmark: Cloud \u2014 Maturity Distribution Across the Stages<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n n = 104<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Source: IDC’s <\/span>Cloud Adoption in Federal Civilian Agencies <\/span>MaturityScape<\/span> Benchmark Survey,<\/span> May 2017<\/span><\/p>\n At the optimized benchmark, CIOs can <\/span>achieve greater<\/span> capacity for<\/span> innovation and <\/span>offer real solutions to workplace inefficiencies. <\/span>Agencies should begin thinking about the cloud as a drive<\/span>r<\/span> of change that will <\/span>enable them<\/span> to provide better services to the citizens they serve<\/span>. Through greater connectivity and accessibility, <\/span>government agencies can usher in a new era of <\/span>advanced computing power that launches them into a new, more <\/span>productive<\/span> work environment<\/span>. This connectivity also provides agencies with an increased ability to analyze, share, and process data. With increased data analytics comes the ability to gain greater insights on <\/span>how your agency is functioning, as well as how citizens are interacting with it. <\/span><\/p>\n Moving to the cloud<\/span> can also give agencies the ability to look at security in a different w<\/span>ay. One <\/span>of the greatest concerns for all government agencies with <\/span>digital<\/span> platforms<\/span> is security. <\/span>With cloud platforms, <\/span>you gain access to a wealth of new tools and resources to address evolving security threats<\/span>. This is especially true for agencies that <\/span>partner<\/span> with Microsoft Azure Government as their cloud provider.<\/span> Azure Government has the highest federal security standards, including <\/span>FedRamp<\/span> High and DoD Level 5 and 6. <\/span><\/p>\n Changing the way your agency thinks about the cloud <\/span>can allow you to bring about effective change in agency process<\/span>es<\/span>. <\/span>Citizen <\/span>expectations are growing all the time. The cloud can push your agency\u2019s mission forward to optimize operations to <\/span>provide<\/span> better, more efficient services to citizens<\/span>. <\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Learn more about effective tools to reach optimization with the cloud in <\/span>IDC <\/span><\/i>MaturityScape<\/span><\/i> Benchmark: Cloud in Federal Civilian Agencies in the United States, 2017<\/span><\/i><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [1]<\/span><\/a><\/span> <\/span>IDC MaturityScape Benchmark: Cloud in Federal Civilian Agencies in the United States, 2017<\/a><\/span>, <\/span>June 2017<\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Doc #US40668816<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cloud migration should be at the top of every Federal CIO\u2019s priority list. [1]Cloud technology offers agencies the tools they need to drive impact with innovation in a rapidly changing digital world. With the cloud, CIOs can bring about digital transformation to support agency missions, using technology as the foundation of new approaches to citizen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2054,"featured_media":20423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[95,170,184,189,191,344,387,438],"class_list":["post-8615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thought-leadership","tag-azure-government","tag-cloud-adoption-in-federal-civilian-agencies-maturityscape-benchmark-survey","tag-cloud-strategy","tag-compliance","tag-compute","tag-idc","tag-management","tag-onboarding"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":" Cloud migration should be at the top of every Federal CIO\u2019s priority list. [1]Cloud technology offers agencies the tools they need to drive impact with innovation in a rapidly changing digital world. With the cloud, CIOs can bring about digital transformation to support agency missions, using technology as the foundation of new approaches to citizen […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2054"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azuregov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/03\/Benchmark-1.jpg\")
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