A recent TechAmerica survey highlights the increased use and desire for cloud-based systems by federal CIOs. As these government organizations are making the shift to cloud computing, how can MSPs understand their biggest priorities? As the results of this survey show, in quite a few ways actually.

June 18, 2014

2 Min Read
The Top 3 Priorities of Federal CIOs and the Cloud

By Michael Brown 1

As we recently learned from federalnewsradio.com, an astonishing 90 percent of federal agencies have adopted cloud computing. While that information should be of particular interest to MSPs who cater to government, what's more important is why these agencies are moving to the cloud at such a high rate.

The TechAmerica survey identified the following top three priorities of federal CIOs:

  1. Cybersecurity:

Cybersecurity ranked as the number one priority. Many MSP customers identify the same concern. In today’s cyber age cloud and data security is of the utmost importance whether you are handling top secret government plans or retail customer payment information.

One survey respondent cited the need to “transform the cybersecurity mindset from compliance to a risk management perspective” as a priorty.

Similarly managing the risk of security breaches is a top concern of MSPs using cloud-based systems to manage services for their clients.

  1. Modernization:  

Replacing older and existing technology is a priority of many federal CIOs, too.

With the majority of federal CIOs sayign they are moving to cloud solutions it's likely that at lease some of these are looking at cloud-based file sharing and computing. It most cases, the model simply makes too much sense to ignore, MSPs just need to be able to convince new clients of the benefits and ease their concerns via solid understanding and proven case studies of successful cloud adaptations.

  1. Mobility:

“In the past few years, the use of mobile devices across the Federal government has shifted from a nice-to-have to a stakeholder requirement.”

This is no different than any client in the corporate world. The environments in both are fast paced, rapidly evolving and always on the move. Much of big business today simply cannot survive without mobility and cloud solutions are the key to being mobile. “Twenty percent specifically pointed to the increase use of cloud services and or mobility as key priority”. Continuous collaboration is a key component and often required in both federal organizations and many clients of MSPs, so mobility and the use of the cloud to connect people no matter their location is vital.

Despite the associated challenges that often accompany it, the priority of many of the largest organizations in the world (as well as all the other sizes!) is still to adopt the cloud in order to improve efficiency, add security and decrease costs. These priorities are driving the cloud sector in the IT industry which will in turn continue to be a valuable asset to MSPs and their clients.

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