For IT leaders in state and local governments, the pressure is on to modernize operations, anticipate the impact of changing regulations, contribute strategically to agency mission, and deliver essential services to taxpayers. Stakeholders and constituents are clamoring for the type of modern applications that deliver services more efficiently while providing a user experience comparable to what they’ve become accustomed to in the private sector. But these types of modern applications pose their own set of challenges for government agencies. More complex than traditional applications, they are often made up of multiple VMs, containers, and services, and run across heterogeneous architectures.
So how can agencies navigate this increasingly complex cloud landscape? The answer lies in thinking like “cloud natives.” Specifically, agencies would do well to start moving away from large, monolithic software projects to smaller applications or even microservices that can be developed, tested, and fielded using Agile methodologies. What makes cloud-native especially advantageous as an approach is the ease in porting workloads from one platform to another.
Challenges of Modern Applications
When it comes to modern applications, governments typically encounter these three primary challenges:
1. Unsustainable or hidden costs for standing up new services and platforms: Agencies tend to consume expensive cloud services or invest in dedicated Kubernetes platforms for building modern applications.
2. Infrastructure silos and multiple operating models: IT teams deal with infrastructure silos and struggle to enforce security isolation. IT is unable to deliver infrastructure for modern applications at the desired pace of development teams or agency stakeholders, due to lack of knowledge or skillsets necessary for a cloud operating model.
3. Increasing time to delivery for new applications: Developer teams spend a significant amount of time on infrastructure operations related to networking and storage for Kubernetes deployments, which takes away time from development. This can ultimately hinder the speed to production.
How Tanzu Can Help Agencies Succeed
VMware vSphere® with VMware Tanzu™ can help governments extend the value of their IT investments by modernizing workloads already running on vSphere. VMware now delivers Kubernetes to the fingertips of millions of IT admins across the globe for rapid application development on existing IT infrastructure. This solution is the fastest way to get started with Kubernetes workloads on developer-ready infrastructure. Cloud-based services are an alternative, but they bring their own challenges with cost, compliance, and security.
Here are three ways TANZU can help governments:
- Deliver developer-ready infrastructure. With Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service, you can manage consistent, compliant, and conformant Kubernetes clusters. Configure a mission-ready Kubernetes infrastructure with existing networking and storage within one hour.
- Align development and IT teams. VMware vSphere with Tanzu allows these teams to operate with their existing skillsets and deliver self-service access to infrastructure for the development teams, while also delivering observability and troubleshooting for Kubernetes workloads to IT teams.
- Simplify cloud operations. VMware vSphere with Tanzu brings agile cloud operations to the IT admin to enable this transition in the role of Cloud administrator or SRE by delivering agility in day-to-day IT operations related to Kubernetes infrastructure.
Learn more about how Iron Bow and our partners at VMware can help your agency make the most of Tanzu by reaching out to our tech experts at CTOteam@ironbow.com.
COMMENTS