Page 68 - FCW, July/August 2018

CLOUD
Outsourcing
innovation to the cloud
Choosing a cloud partner based on its commitment to innovation and security will pay untold dividends
Tom Padgett
Senior Vice President, SAP
Laura Grant
Head of Digital Innovation, SAP
latest advances, such as natural language processing and chat bots, into enterprise systems without disrupting the mission and agencies’ day-to-day operations. And they must be able to do that while keeping everything secure.
In addition, as agencies think about moving applications to the cloud, they should take advantage of the opportunity to evaluate their business processes and workflows. Many of them are cumbersome because they are based on outdated policies or technologies. Those limitations might have been real 20 years ago when the systems were created, but streamlining processes now will save time and money while increasing efficiency. And it will ultimately enhance agencies’ ability to keep pace with the public’s demand for highly responsive services.
A matter of trust
Agencies need to be able to trust that their cloud partners take security as seriously as they do. Indeed, it should be integral
to a cloud partner’s business. Therefore,
AS AGENCIES DEEPEN their involvement with cloud technology, they need to look beyond current challenges and focus on business outcomes. Cloud can be part of a much larger transformation, which is why agencies should ask how the technology will play into broader issues and even how it might make activities possible in the future that they don’t yet know they will need. In that context, a cloud partner’s ability to scale, innovate and provide top-notch security is essential.
Agencies are so busy keeping hardware running and software up-to-date that
they often don’t have time to think
about innovation. But by shifting that responsibility to a cloud service provider, agencies don’t need to be concerned about
networks and infrastructure as long as they are making sure that the cloud vendors are meeting their service-level agreements.
The cloud frees agencies to focus
on mission-critical activities and other projects they couldn’t do before because they didn’t have the time or capability from a technology perspective. In other words, the cloud offers agencies the ability to outsource innovation.
A chance to rethink
business processes
Agencies should choose a cloud partner that has the agility to constantly provide innovation in a very secure way. Among other things, such companies should constantly be thinking about user- centered design and how to bring the
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