Government and Technology: Initiative to Move Old Infrastructures to Public Cloud

With a few exceptions, federal, state and local governments have not been considered the forefront of technology. This largely stems from very visible governmental agencies, such as the DMV and USPS, being notoriously inefficient. From this perspective, this week’s guest speaker, Richard Rogers, was particularly interesting, as very few people think of any government agencies when asked about public cloud computing. He said, “In the cloud, it’s instantaneous. [After a few configurations], you are ready to put your applications on the top of [the cloud]. So, it gives you ability to deliver services a lot quicker.”¹ Rogers may be correct in saying that, if successful, the utilization of the public cloud computing service may enable him to put necessary resources into much-needed areas, such as business services. However, I could not help being more skeptical and seeing more challenges to this initiative.

The first obvious obstacle would be the years of legacy systems that are layered on top of each other. Rogers mentioned, “We have legacy systems that newer generations [may not be able] to understand how to support.”¹ In addition, according to Network World, “Migrating legacy systems to cloud computing services requires knowledgeable acquisition staff and appropriate processes.”² Those layers will require very specific resources to understand, propose viable solutions for and execute in order for them to be integrated into the newer systems. These specialized skillsets in old systems are hard to acquire, and the fact that over 50 percent of the IT workforce is eligible for retirement in the next 4 years¹ will not be helpful either.

Another concern is continuity of the project, or lack thereof, to realize this long-term vision. Given the uncertainty of the current political climates, temporary budgetary cuts and thereby resource constraints are inevitable, no matter who is in charge. The initiative requires a long-term sustained effort, and I do not believe the current political climates are fit to support any long-term initiatives such as this one.

Finally, data security is a paramount concern, since governments typically deal with sensitive personal data that have severe consequences when breached. “The survey revealed that 87 percent of government entities in the United States are afraid to move their critical assets to the cloud because of security and privacy concerns.”³ This perception is hard to overcome, especially for the older government workforce that has been functioning on the legacy systems for a long time.

While there are more obstacles and risks for this initiative, it is still an admirable one and may be a necessary one. Nextgov points out, “The government’s aging systems—some of which date back to the 1970s—are in dire need of modernization, and Congress is currently reviewing legislation that could greatly speed up the effort.”⁴ This initiative will certainly have many difficult roads ahead, but it is true that this must be done sooner rather than later. I hope there is going to be a will left in the public sphere to overcome those obstacles.

 

References

1. Rogers, Richard (2018), Remarks in MS&E 238 class, Summer Quarter 2018.
2. Cooney, Michael (2014), Three new (and a few old) cloud computing challenges stymie government rollouts. Retrieved from Network World: https://www.networkworld.com/article/2687982/cloud-computing/three-new-and-a-few-old-cloud-computing-challenges-stymie-government-rollouts.html.
3. Vovk, Alex (2017), Security still key concern for agencies moving to the cloud. Retrieved from GCN: https://gcn.com/articles/2017/01/06/cloud-security-concerns.aspx.
4. Konkel, Frank (2016), Public Cloud Market to Exceed $236B by 2020. Retrieved from Nextgov: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2016/09/public-cloud-market-exceed-236b-2020/131340/.