Creating a Culture for Transformation at Your Agency

There’s mounting pressure on government agencies to provide better outcomes for constituents, whether that’s making communities healthier and safer or improving water quality.

Although the outcomes may vary, there’s a common technology thread driving this work. “These global changing conditions have increased the consumption that we see across all major public cloud providers,” said Michael Nardone, U.S. National Cloud and DevOps Practice Leader for Insight Digital Innovation. Insight helps agencies innovate smarter with transformative technology and data-driven experiences.

Nardone said that agencies aren’t just adopting cloud because it’s different or better but because it unlocks impactful results. Take the Iowa Department of Public Health, for example. The agency partnered with Insight to modernize COVID-19 data workloads, accelerating reporting from monthly to real time, per federal requirements.

“Cloud is also the great equalizer because it levels the playing field,” Nardone said. “It democratizes advanced technologies, making them available to communities and individuals who might not have had access to them.”

Adopting public cloud can be challenging, even for the most seasoned IT departments. Nardone shared best practices for creating a culture that embraces transformation through public cloud adoption.

1. People

Successful cloud adoption from a people perspective is about understanding that you need large, diverse, multidisciplinary teams that are willing and eager to learn, Nardone said. Having the right team is key to keeping pace with the extreme rate of change and complex needs that arise across user communities.

At Insight, this belief is core to the respectful and inclusive environment that’s fostered at every level of its business. Through the company’s 15 Teammate Resource Groups (TRGs), employees can connect with colleagues on a deeper level and unlock their collective potential.

2. Processes

Cloud adoption will undoubtedly stretch your existing processes for purchasing technology services, collaborating across teams and more, Nardone said. It’s vital that you have a prescriptive framework to guide that journey.

Having a cloud center of excellence to serve as a joint task force or tiger team that leads those efforts is a best practice widely used in public and private sector organizations. “You have to have a dedicated, focused team if you want to maximize your investment in cloud,” he said. “That multidisciplinary team is able to help upskill your organization and drive adoption.”

3. Technologies

There’s a lot of complexity when it comes to managing multiple public clouds.

“Having the right strategy and accelerated decisionmaking around which technologies apply to which use cases to drive the outcomes that you’re looking for is absolutely critical,” Nardone said.

Ultimately, to get the most out of the public cloud, you can’t treat it like another data center, he said. It has the power to serve individuals at state, local and federal levels, better. “Partnering with the right team is how you will lead a successful cloud adoption and outcomes that you’re looking for.”

This article is an excerpt from GovLoop’s recent guide, “Delivering Government Services Through a Lens of Equity: Technology, Policies and Conversation Starters.” Download the full guide here.