Assessment of Cloud Adoption in Government Sector

In the era of rapid digital transformation and the adoption of digital tools, governments are adapting to a new normal, especially after the COVID 19 pandemic. With the evolution of digital tools, government, public institutions, and departments have been irreversibly transformed across the globe, both structurally and in terms of delivering services to the people they serve. To serve this transformation at an expected pace adopting cloud- based solution becomes paramount.

Rapid digitalization in the Indian government sector accelerated development of citizen centric applications that required massive computing requirements. This led to a need to have a scalable and flexible infrastructure to store and manage data, using cloud-based solutions. There is an increased focus on securing the data generated on cloud infrastructure and an emphasis on reducing the procurement lifecycle for adopting cloud-based services through the empanelment of CSPs.

Limited people capacity and awareness to utilize and manage cloud services efficiently remain a challenge for policymakers and user ministries/departments. Threat to data security and protection when hosting application with CSPs and the issue of cloud specific applications creating lock in with vendors continues to remain a key challenge.

Policymakers can regularly update the framework and guidelines for the adoption and evaluation of cloud-based service models, in line with the advancements in cloud technologies, and create awareness across ministries/departments. Ministries / departments can spread awareness on the benefits of the cloud by comparing the total cost of using the cloud vis à vis on- premise infrastructure. CSPs may conduct various workshops to initiate awareness programmers to educate ministries / departments about the latest technological developments in the cloud.