HYBRID CLOUD: A CATALYST TO DRIVING EFFICIENCIES AND MEETING THE DIGITAL ASPIRATIONS OF THE UK PUBLIC SECTOR

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1 HYBRID CLOUD: A CATALYST TO DRIVING EFFICIENCIES AND MEETING THE DIGITAL ASPIRATIONS OF THE UK PUBLIC SECTOR Public Sector Industry Report Contents 2 Executive Summary 5 3 Pressure to Meet 6 Key Findings Digital Transformation Why This Study? 8 Recommendations

2 Executive Summary Given the fiscal pressures on central and local government to deliver better for less, there is a huge opportunity for technology to transform public services to meet the needs of our changing population and deliver efficiencies. There is still some way to go to deliver the wholesale end-to-end transformation that is required, with the ultimate goal being cost effective digital, online, mobile, social, self-serviced, secure, and above all easy-to-use services. It s of little surprise then to see such high levels of public cloud adoption amongst Line of Businesses (LOB) in UK public sector organisation. Findings from a study from EMC, VCE and VMware show that 85 percent are using some form of public cloud services, whether validated by IT or not. When asked what these public cloud services deployments were used for over a third (36 percent) cited it was used for back-up and recovery services, closely followed by hosting internal applications (35 percent). establish data and privacy practices they must follow. This is putting IT in unfamiliar territory; striving to meet the expectations and needs of a generation of citizens that were not traditionally part of the job. a hybrid cloud approach, where the affordability, ease-of-use and scale of public cloud can be achieved, without compromising safety and compliance regulations, as business-critical applications remain in-house. It s here where IT can serve as the necessary connective tissue: identifying, vetting and using technology in ways that transform business processes and support each department s aspirations to be digitally-led. Yet against this backdrop, UK public sector organisations face a growing maze of regulations and legislation that both dictate the government structures in which they operate and So what should IT departments do to ensure their organisations can benefit from the scalability and efficiency of the public cloud, without risking security issues? The answer lies in As public sector organisations across the UK strive to meet the Digital by Default standard (providing better services for millions of users), there is a growing need to have the capacity and technical flexibility to update and improve the service being delivered to citizens on a very frequent basis. Hybrid cloud can facilitate this. It allows IT to set up, test, deploy and take down applications without building any new infrastructure. Public Sector Back to contents» 2

3 PRESSURE TO MEET DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION There is a need for rapid acceleration in the way the UK public sector fixes its legacy infrastructure Research from the Service Transformation Challenge Panel, an independent government advisory body, suggested radical improvements could be made to how data and technology are used to provide smarter services to members of the public becoming increasingly used to interacting with organisations through any device, at any time. Utilised correctly, technology should drive efficiency and productivity across the public sector. Over the last few years, we ve seen countless examples of how digital services are bringing benefits to both UK citizens and departments by transforming public services that were unimaginable ten years ago. Yet despite this positive outlook, to make these aspirations a reality, there is a need for rapid acceleration in the way the UK public sector fixes its legacy infrastructure to give the flexibility and agility to move fast. Only once this is in place can public sector organisations take an entrepreneurial, agile approach to building and launching services for citizens. Public Sector Back to contents» 3

4 PRESSURE TO MEET DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION A great example of a body that has been able to do this is the DVLA. Despite a challenging context, the DVLA is quite clear in its aspirations. It wants to be the best customer facing business there is. It s on record as having an ambition of building agility into its technology infrastructure that makes them a simpler, better, safer organisation. It sees itself in competition with other government departments and the private sector a level of aspiration and ambition that is rare in the public sector: My concern about the public sector is that we don t hold ourselves to high enough standards. Oliver Morley, Chief Executive Officer at the DVLA The DVLA is just one of a number of public sector organisations that see IT as a means of competitive advantage, with an essentially strong customercentric mentality enabling services citizens want and need. This means moving away from the current and out-dated approach that is bogged down in the inertia of legacy services and siloed in its approach. Driving this change doesn t happen overnight. It requires a clear vision and leadership that has a longerterm outcome in mind the overall transformation of the government, not just investing to deliver lower unit cost of IT. By being bolder at putting technology at the centre of new ideas, new policy and new programmes from the start everyone is focused on the end goal improving the services delivered to citizens. This requires strong leadership, collaboration and rewriting contract terms. There is a need for more urgency around cutting costs and driving ITled transformation. For example the enormous savings that could be made by virtualising government servers, increasing mobility through enduser computing and accelerating the journey to cloud in a secure, agile and flexible manner. There s a huge range of ways in which the public cloud can help organisations, from streamlining administrative management through to information visualisation and trend analysis. Thanks to their intuitive design, widespread availability and low cost barriers, many employees already know how to use these tools and aren t afraid to deploy them where they see the need. 1 Public Sector Back to contents» 4

5 Why this study? Against this backdrop of digital transformation, this study explores the views of over 600 decision makers and heads of departments from within Public Sector organisations, including finance, marketing, HR and customer services, to capture the breadth of uses of the public cloud across the entire organisation. Commissioned by EMC, VCE and VMware, it identifies the motivations and rationale behind different departments within Public Sector organisations procuring public cloud services. The research was conducted by Opinion Matters between March 2015 and April 2015 among 604 decision makers / heads of departments across six industries*. The aim of the study was to compare the influence and impact public cloud purchases have on department efficiency levels. This report aims to help IT departments in the industry find workable cloud solutions, which don t impede innovation but also keep the organisation s data safe namely, through adopting a hybrid cloud approach. *Industries surveyed: Telecoms & Media, Financial Services, Retail, Public Sector, Manufacturing and Oil & Gas. Public Sector Back to contents» 5

6 KEY FINDINGS WHICH EXTERNAL IT RELATED SERVICES DOES YOUR DEPARTMENT USE? Public cloud deployment going mainstream: UK public sector organisations are taking significant steps on the path to digital transformation by embracing public cloud services. Over three quarters (85 percent) of respondents from the UK public sector are using some form of public cloud services, whether validated by IT or not. Google App Engine 43% Local UK external IT services 26% Amazon Web Services 14% *Diagram represents top 3 responses WHAT DOES YOUR DEPARTMENT USE THESE EXTERNAL SERVICES FOR? Back-up & Recovery Internal Applications External Applications 36% 35% 29% As they look to embrace the scale, flexibility and speed of public clouds, over a third (36 percent) cited it was used for back-up and recovery services, closely followed by hosting internal applications (35 percent). WHAT ARE THE MAIN REASONS FOR CHOOSING TO BUY-IN EXTERNAL CLOUD SERVICES WITHIN YOUR DEPARTMENT? Turning to the cloud to drive efficiencies across the organisation: Cheaper Solution 34% With continued pressure to increase the use of ICT across UK public sector organisations and deliver efficiencies, this adoption of public cloud services is being led predominantly by affordability; more than a third of respondents (34 percent) cited this as the main reason for choosing to buy-in external cloud services within their department, followed by ease of use (23 percent), while 20 percent stated they used public cloud because it was the right solution for the application they were using. Ease of use 23% Right Solution 20% In order to ensure the UK public sector is driving efficiencies in a secure, flexible, agile and compliant manner, business users need to look at embracing a hybrid cloud strategy that can provide portability of workloads, one set of management tools and deliver services such as disaster recovery and built in security without the cost of having to invest in additional infrastructure. Public Sector Back to contents» 6

7 KEY FINDINGS WHAT WOULD BE THE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR ORGANISATION IF YOUR DEPARTMENT SUFFERED UNEXPECTED DOWNTIME? Reputational cost to business 36% Loss of productivity Loss of data 43% 34% Professionals from the industry are well aware of the risks of public cloud deployment: Despite this high adoption level, public sector employees understand the potential risks of using public cloud services. When asked about the likely consequences of an external cloud provider suffering unplanned downtime, 43 percent were most concerned with a loss of productivity, while 36 percent were concerned with the reputational cost to the organisation and 34 percent concerned with the loss of data. WHAT (IF AT ALL) ARE THE RISKS YOU PERCEIVE WITH PUBLIC CLOUD SERVICES BOUGHT FROM AN EXTERNAL COMPANY? When asked about the risks they perceived with using IT related public cloud services bought from an external company 42 percent cited security exploits, while 30 percent cited internal data loss and 26 percent cited governance issues. Security Exploits Internal Data Loss 30% 42% Governance Issues 26% Public Sector Back to contents» 7

8 1 A 2 3 WHY LOOK TO A HYBRID CLOUD APPROACH? hybrid cloud approach offers the best of both worlds to public sector organisations, by providing the flexibility, affordability, agility and scale of the public cloud, without compromising safety and compliance regulations. It ensures that business-critical applications remain in-house, while instantly provisioning the infrastructure from public cloud to cope with new projects and set up virtual servers to handle a new system. It can be scaled back just as easily when needed, a distinct advantage given the difficultly or sometimes impossibility of taking workloads back out of the public cloud. A true hybrid cloud allows organisations to use a common platform for seamlessly extending their existing data centre to the cloud while leveraging the tools, existing security policies, knowledge, experience and processes that they already use on-premise. HOW TO GET STARTED WITH A HYBRID CLOUD DEPLOYMENT: Get used to the idea of not building all the IT services internally The IT team should instead be focused on managing the consumption of services from multiple service providers, including their own internal functions. Think about possible future data sets For instance, the Internet of Things could bring new potential data streams to the organisation so it is important to consider how this could one day be integrated into your hybrid cloud environment. Design every integration with security at front of mind Ensure you are able to manage the identities of the users you want to have access. Simplicity should be front of mind Simplicity is key to ensuring the whole process can be easily repeatable. Engaging a specialist service integrator to ensure simplicity as a blueprint for the design of your hybrid cloud solution may be the best approach. Select an integrator with a proven track record Look at development and testing as a starting point A hybrid cloud makes it possible to quickly develop and test applications in the cloud and easily move them to onsite production if required. It s an easy, fast, and cost-effective way to gain on-demand capacity for a limited time period. Ensure disaster recovery is built in Many departments do not have the budget, expertise or time to develop a disaster recovery plan. Disaster recovery in the cloud is emerging as a compelling alternative due to the flexibility in commitment, capacity and cost. Identify an integrator with relevant experience of the specific integration your business is looking for and make your assessment outcomes-based, (rather than time and materials). Public Sector Back to contents» 8

9 With secure, flexible and manageable access to public cloud data through a hybrid cloud approach, the entire organisation can focus on innovating with more online public services that help to improve their efficiency and effectiveness and reduce the cost of delivering them. Click here to find out more About EMC EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling businesses and service providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing. Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset information in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way. Additional information about EMC can be found at About VMware VMware is a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility, our solutions deliver a brave new model of IT that is fluid, instant and more secure. VMware s public cloud platform is built on the trusted foundation of vsphere and delivers a true hybrid cloud. The service provides unified networking that spans between existing and new data center capacity, common management and security, with the same reliability and performance expected from internal data centers. Customers can innovate faster by rapidly developing, automatically delivering and more safely consuming any application. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at About VCE VCE, an EMC Federation Company, is the world market leader in converged infrastructure and converged solutions. VCE accelerates the adoption of converged infrastructure and cloud-based computing models that reduce IT costs while improving time to market. VCE delivers the industry s only fully integrated and virtualized cloud infrastructure systems, allowing customers to focus on business innovation instead of integrating, validating, and managing IT infrastructure. VCE solutions are available through an extensive partner network. About Opinion Matters Opinion Matters is an award winning insight agency, providing consultancy and market research solutions for businesses, organisations and agencies in the UK and overseas. Founded in 2000 as a communications driven research specialist, our expertise is now also key to providing foundations for creating business strategies, gaining insight on perceptions, collecting audience intelligence, providing product development insight, or establishing reaction and need created by compliance and legislation. Public Sector Back to contents» 9

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