The cloud’s ability to transform and elevate the private sector has been well documented in recent years. But there are many ways that the public sector can also use the cloud to drive efficiencies and reduce costs. With the government’s Cloud First policy, public bodies are encouraging their technology teams to capitalise on the opportunities brought by new technology, and are looking for solutions that they can rely on years into the future.
Not convinced? Here are six ways that the public sector can increase flexibility, remove inefficiencies and create savings through cloud solutions.
1 – End costly support
On-premise hardware and storage can be costly and time intensive to maintain. As budgets tighten, it’s harder to justify spending taxpayer money on keeping aging equipment alive. Transitioning key infrastructure to the cloud and consuming it as a scalable, usage based service will generate valuable cost savings.
2 – No expensive downtime
Public sector organisations provide valuable services to citizens, meaning they must remain operational and contactable at all times. If an organisation’s infrastructure goes down due to updates, repairs or natural disasters, the public suffers. A cloud approach means all vital infrastructure is maintained independently with robust continuity measures to guarantee ongoing availability.
3 – Scale to meet demand
Many public services – emergency services, for example – will experience seasonal peaks and troughs throughout the year. With cloud services, you only pay for what you need, when you need it, and can easily add or reduce capabilities as you require.4 – Eliminate buyer’s remorse
There is no greater waste of public funds than investing in costly hardware that only has a limited lifespan of a year or so, or is too cumbersome and complex to replace if it’s not working. Because cloud technologies are consumed as a service, if you’re unhappy with what you’re getting, it’s easy to leave one provider at short notice and switch to another.
5 – Stop technology headaches
Cloud providers own, maintain and operate all the infrastructure that they rent out to you. As part of their service, it will be down to your provider to keep pace with advancements in the market and upgrade their technology. Any acquisitions and upgrades aren’t your responsibility.
6 – Cost-effectively add new features
With in-house infrastructure and hardware , expanding a contact centre operation or adding a public-facing chat tool would likely require a costly infrastructure upgrade. Cloud communications make new features available for you to easily choose when available, almost instantly, at a predictable monthly fee.
It’s not as simple as all that, however…
Before moving to the cloud, public sector bodies will need to conduct a thorough audit of their existing infrastructure. A proper analysis of where cloud solutions can provide the biggest cost savings will need to be done. And, of course, there will need to be a thorough scrutiny of SLAs and contracts.
But don’t worry, that’s something that we can help you with.
To find out more about how (and where) cloud computing can save you money, read our free eGuide, Ensuring a smooth, risk-free transition to the cloud.
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