By Kirsten Wade
A new research report released by Ovum highlights the success of cloud technology for Australian public sector organisations and outlines a framework to assist agencies to better understand the organisational factors associated with adopting the new technology.
Practical Steps to the Cloud for Government Agencies outlines case studies of public sector organisations who have been early adopters of cloud technology in order to offer insights into their experiences.
Sponsored by Telstra, the report included case studies on five organisations, including Employment Plus, Monash University, the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management, the Torres Strait Island Regional Council and the Victorian Department of Business and Innovation. The research focused on these organisations due to their success with infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), software-as-a-service (SaaS) or platform-as-a-service (PaaS).
Steve Hodgkinson, research director of Ovum’s IT research and advisory services for the Asia-Pacific region, said the case studies reinforce the role cloud technology is playing in public sector organisations.
“Their experiences were that benefits were greater than expected while risks and difficulties were lower than typically experienced by traditional ICT projects. These proof points reveal that cloud services do actually live up to the promise of better, faster, less expensive and less risky ICT,” Hodgkinson said.
The report also offers an innovative framework to assist agencies to better understand the organisational factors associated with the early adoption of cloud technology.
“The catalysts framework provides a tool for thinking about the degree to which a cloud service is a good fit for the characteristics of an agency,” Hodgkinson said. “This framework is a major step forward for understanding the enablers, and sticking points, of cloud services adoption in the public sector.”
