VMware Research Reveals Agencies are Navigating Compliance, Security and Upskilling Employees Amid Cloud Adoption

VMware announced findings from a study on how government agencies are scaling use of multi-cloud environments for mission success. The study, titled “Multi-cloud Is The New Frontier Of Government IT,” conducted by Forrester Consulting, found while the move to multi-cloud is a priority, agencies face challenges supporting growing cloud environments, including compliance standards, data security and upskilling employees.

A ‘Cloud‑Smart’ Approach for the Public Sector

The survey captures responses from more than 500 agency leaders and IT decision-makers at federal, state, and local governments in the United States and Canada and discovered that while agencies are accelerating cloud adoption, multi-cloud environments are far more diverse, complex, and distributed than anything organizations have managed in the past. This can create barriers or force trade-offs between moving fast and managing risk. The challenge lies in finding the right tools and platforms to meet agency demands and keep data and processes safe and compliant. The study found when selecting cloud platform providers, the top priorities for agencies were:

• Security (74%)
• Lower total cost (67%)
• Interoperability of applications (66%)
• Ease of use for users (66%) 
• Agency contracting equity goals (63%)
• Regulatory compliance (58%)

Talent Paired with Technology

To achieve a faster and smarter path to multi-cloud, agencies are focused on scaling security and upskilling employees in tandem with cloud adoption. More than half of agencies (57%) expressed concern about data security as they look to increase cloud adoption and 65% of agencies have plans to increase their investment in professional development for their developers.”Multi-cloud is the new reality for government agencies but as they increase cloud investments, they also need to lay the technical and cultural foundation,” said Jennifer Chronis, vice president, public sector, VMware. “VMware is uniquely positioned to meet our customers wherever they are on their digital transformation journeys and help them take full advantage of multiple clouds. Across the public sector, we are giving our customers the power to accelerate innovation and improve resiliency on a trusted digital foundation.”

The full study, complete with recommendations for a ‘cloud-smart’ approach to the multi-cloud era can be downloaded here.