In a recent guest post on Cisco blogs, GovLoop’s Steve Ressler wrote about how the public sector’s IT consumption model is evolving. He highlighted a new guide produced by GovLoop and Cisco: “The Virtual Platform – The Future of Public Sector IT Consumption.” Here is an excerpt from Steve’s post:
We’ve arrived at a new technology-consumption landscape – powered by cloud, mobile and even social media – that is fundamentally changing the way we use and purchase information technology tools.
For public agencies, this shift presents a great opportunity for cost savings, as cloud-based solutions allow cash-strapped IT departments to switch from a capital investment model of IT funding to a managed service and operating expense model of consumption.
This new model also has the potential to make agencies more mission-focused, since cloud and mobile solutions allow the agency to concentrate efforts on its area of expertise – as opposed to operating all aspects of the IT environment, from the data center to email and messaging. Additionally, there are IT service delivery benefits, from faster delivery times for applications, to the ability to nimbly scale up to a larger user base.
However, there are also pitfalls. The decentralization of IT consumption through lightweight and relatively inexpensive solutions like Dropbox allows business units the ability to procure and implement IT solutions outside of the auspices of formal IT and procurement channels. This practice, known as ‘shadow IT,’ poses a number of hazards to the agency, the most egregious of which is the introduction of unknown security and compliance risks.
To help prepare agencies to maximize the value of this new IT consumption landscape and minimize the risks, GovLoop and Cisco have produced the following guide: Some ContentThe Virtual Platform – The Future of Public Sector IT Consumption.