Simplify Your Journey to Become a Digital Federal Government by Building Cloud Proficiency

Leverage lessons learned in the form of a cloud proficiency assessment

Analyst Perspective

Build your federal organization’s cloud proficiency

The ambition for the federal governments of Canada and the US is to become a digital government where agencies and departments can efficiently deliver digital services to their constituents. The cloud plays a crucial role as an enabler of this vision. However, federal organizations face various challenges during the adoption and operation of cloud services.

This report is the result of extensive primary and secondary research, aiming to foster a peer-to-peer understanding and empathy toward the major challenges federal government organizations experience with cloud. Its purpose is to identify gaps: What challenges do other federal entities face? What are the lessons learned? What assumptions were made? And how can we overcome these challenges and achieve a digital government?

The challenges presented in this report are relevant to every federal government entity no matter their cloud stage. The objective is to transform lessons learned into actionable steps, utilizing the report and the associated Federal Government Cloud Proficiency Assessment tool to gauge your organization’s cloud proficiency and identify a short-term action plan to bridge cloud gaps. By doing so, your organization will be one step closer to enabling a digital federal government.

Research Analyst, Industry Practice
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight

Failing to evaluate your federal organization’s cloud proficiency could result in stagnant transformation and create further obstacles in the pursuit of a digital government.

Defining the cloud

Per NIST, the cloud has five fundamental characteristics. All clouds have these characteristics, even if they are executed in somewhat different ways between delivery models, service models, and even individual providers.

Cloud characteristics

Cloud customers are capable of provisioning cloud resources without human interaction (e.g. contacting sales), generally through a web console.

Broad network access

Capabilities are designed to be delivered over a network and are generally intended for access by a wide variety of platform types (cloud services are generally device-agnostic).

Resource pooling

Multiple customers (internal, in the case of private clouds) make use of a highly abstracted shared infrastructure managed by the cloud provider.

Rapid elasticity

Customers are capable of provisioning additional resources as required, pulling from a functionally infinite pool of capacity. Cloud resources can be spun down when no longer needed.

Measured service

Consumption is metered based on an appropriate unit of analysis (number of licenses, storage used, compute cycles, etc.) and billing is transparent and granular.

Cloud delivery models

The NIST definition of cloud computing outlines four cloud delivery models: public, private, hybrid, and community cloud. A community cloud is like a private cloud, but it is provisioned for the exclusive use of a like-minded group of organizations, usually in a mutually beneficial, non-competitive arrangement. Universities and hospitals are examples of organizations that can pool their resources in this way without impacting competitiveness. The Info-Tech model covers three key delivery models – public, private, and hybrid – and an overarching model (multi-cloud) that can comprise more than one of the other models – public + public; public + hybrid; etc.

Public

The cloud service is provisioned for access by the general public (customers).

Private

A private cloud has the five key characteristics, but is provisioned for use by a single entity, like a company or organization.

Hybrid

Hybridity essentially refers to interoperability between multiple cloud delivery models (public +private).

Multi

A multi-cloud deployment requires only that multiple clouds are used without any necessary interoperability (Nutanix, 2019).

NIST cloud service models

Software as a service

SaaS has exploded in popularity with consumers who wish to avail themselves of the cloud’s benefits without having to manage underlying infrastructure components. SaaS is simple, generally billed per-user per-month, and is almost entirely provider-managed.

Platform as a service

PaaS providers offer a toolset for their customers to run custom applications and services without the requirement to manage underlying infrastructure components. This service model is ideal for custom applications/services that don’t benefit from highly granular infrastructure control.

Infrastructure as a service

IaaS represents the sale of components. Instead of a service, IaaS providers sell access to components, like compute, storage, and networking, allowing for customers to build anything they want on top of the providers’ infrastructure.

The sector is investing heavily in cloud

The federal government industry’s cloud journey is evolving, with cloud spending increasing year-over-year. Remote accessibility, disaster recovery/business continuity, cost savings, and flexible computing power are just a few of the major drivers that are pushing federal organizations into the cloud. Consider the following applications/workloads that agencies and departments are moving to the cloud:

Government Cloud Applications

Cybersecurity

Call Center / Contact Center

Collaboration Tools

Backoffice Applications

Payment Processing

Analytics

Citizen-Facing Web Apps

Top Features:

• Self-Service Web Portals
• Workflow Automation
• Integrated Security Tools
• Data Storage & Backup
• Content Management
• Low Code/No Code
• Data Sharing Tools
• Development Tools
• Integrated Analytics

$210 million

Total spending on cloud services by Canadian federal organizations from April 2018 to March 2021

Source: Office of the Auditor General of Canada, 2022.

$12.3 billion

Total spending on cloud services by the US federal organization in 2022 alone

Source: Deltek, 2023.

Adapted from Custom Research Center for Digital Government, 2021.

Cloud is the foundation for a digital government

The realization of digital government relies on the success of cloud adoption. Both governments have recognized this as is evident in their digital action plans, which consistently emphasize cloud adoption as a key foundation and enabler for their transformation:

US Federal Government’s Digital Strategy:

“Mission drives agencies, and the need to deliver better services to customers at a lower cost is pushing every level of government to look for new solutions. The Digital Government Strategy has three main goals:

1. Enable the American people and an increasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital government information and services anywhere, anytime, on any device.
2. Ensure that as the government adjusts to this new digital world, we seize the opportunity to procure and manage devices, applications, and data in smart, secure, and affordable ways.
3. Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across our nation and improve the quality of services for the American people.

Cloud References:

“Through IT Reform, the Federal Government has made progress in foundational execution areas such as adopting ‘light technologies’ such as cloud computing.”

“Going forward, we must pilot, document, and rapidly scale new approaches to secure data and mobile technologies and address privacy concerns. Shifting to the cloud is one area of opportunity.”

Obama White House Archives, 2012

Canada Federal Government’s Digital Ambition:

“The GC's Digital Ambition will provide a solid foundation for the ever-evolving digital transformation of government. It will serve as an important tool to support the focus shared across ministers and departments to identify and implement better ways to ensure Canadians receive high-quality, accessible, and efficient government services:

1. Excellence in technology and operations.
2. Data-enabled digital services and programs.
3. Action-ready digital strategy and policy as developed by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.
4. Evolution of structural funding, talent, and culture.

Cloud References:

“Strengthen our government application portfolio using a cloud-smart strategy and common solutions.”

“Provide a suite of accessible, modern, and secure cloud-based tools to support productivity, collaboration, and web-conferencing.”

“Evolve target state enterprise architecture and ensure architectural alignment through cloud cost management.”

Government of Canada, 2023

COVID served as both a cloud turning point and pressure point

75%

Canadian government leaders that identified a change in mindset to digital-first as important to maximizing value from the cloud.

Source: Deloitte, 2021

16%

Constituents that believe the government has successfully used technology to improve their experiences.

Source: Salesforce, 2022.

The pandemic sparked digital ambition. Digital strategy became a priority with many federal entities reflecting on the way trends like AI, Blockchain, and virtual reality could benefit the employees and the constituents they serve. Cloud became detrimental for government transformation and was often viewed as an accelerator toward innovation.

The pandemic also sparked pressure to make the cloud transition. It was the only option for continuing government operations and adapting to pandemic-induced needs and constituent expectations. And now, federal organizations are dealing with the consequences. Illustrated in the figures on the right, agencies and departments are challenged with various cloud components, stalling transformation and the ability to prioritize those digital ambitions.

Federal Government of Canada Top Four Challenges

1. Access to Talent Management – 58%
2. Financial Management – 54%
3. Security – 59%
4. Organizational Alignment – 47%

Source: Deloitte, 2021

Federal Government of the US Top Four Challenges

1. Security Assurance – 58.5%
2. Total Operations Cost – 46.5%
3. Lack of Expertise/Skills – 37.5%
4. Ability to Manage Services Across Hybrid & Multi-Cloud – 35%

Source: FedScoop, 2023

The pressure also stems from cloud-first policies that were put in place

It was only after the challenges experienced with cloud-first that cloud-smart was enacted.

Cloud-First Policy

Government of Canada – 2018: “The cloud first policy requirement was meant to challenge departmental CIOs to consider cloud as their preferred delivery model for IT.”

US Federal Government – 2010: “Granted agencies broad authority to adopt cloud-based solutions.“

Cloud-first intended to accelerate the pace at which federal agencies would realize the value of cloud. Instead, it brought challenges across various areas. For Government of Canada, they categorized issue areas into roles and responsibilities, governance, methods, skills, finance, and culture. For the US, it was broken down by security, procurement, and workforce.

Cloud-Smart Policy

Government of Canada – 2023: "The Government of Canada will rationalize application portfolios and align to the most appropriate hosting model. This strategy will help departments navigate modernization decisions while also addressing challenges they are experiencing.“

US Federal Government – 2017: "Cloud Smart operates on the principle that agencies should be equipped to evaluate their options based on their service and mission needs, technical requirements, and existing policy limitations.”

Cloud-smart was intended to provide guidance on how to successfully adopt and operate in a cloud environment. This benefitted late adopters and those yet to move to cloud. However, cloud-first adopters were guinea pigs of a very new technology for its time. Many underestimated the people, process, and technology impact and lacked best practices from their respective central agencies to ensure success, which is evident in the challenges many of these organizations face today.

Sources: Government of Canada, 2018; Government of Canada, 2023; Federal Cloud Computing Strategy, n.d.