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White Paper
Cloud Computing in the Public Sector:
Public Manager’s Guide to Evaluating and Adopting Cloud Computing
Authors Russell Craig Jeff Frazier Norm Jacknis Seanan Murphy Carolyn Purcell Patrick Spencer JD Stanley
November 2009
Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG)
Cisco IBSG Copyright © 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
White Paper
Cloud Computing in the Public Sector:
Public Manager’s Guide to Evaluating and Adopting Cloud Computing Executive Summary
Cloud computing—delivering infrastructure, services, and software on demand via the network—offers attractive advantages to the public sector. For example, it has the potential to reduce information and communications technology (ICT) costs by virtualizing capital assets like disk storage and processing cycles into a readily available, affordable operating expense. Some public sector organizations have made early moves into cloud computing. For example, in Washington, D.C., all 38,000 city government employees have unlimited access to Google documents and services such as Gmail. The U.S. General Services Administration recently announced moving the government-wide portal usa.gov to the cloud and issued an RFI for cloud infrastructure services. In Japan, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has announced plans to shift all government agencies into a private cloud environment by 2015. One of the most significant cloud computing opportunities for the public sector is the ability to share ICT resources among multiple agencies. While governments have tried hard to create frameworks geared toward shared services, these have not always been successful. Cloud computing offers an easier and less burdensome route to more efficient and effective public sector information management. This may be especially true for developing countries that do not have the technology, skilled personnel, or resources to create world-class ICT infrastructures. Of course,
Cloud Computing in the Public Sector:
Public Manager’s Guide to Evaluating and Adopting Cloud Computing
Authors Russell Craig Jeff Frazier Norm Jacknis Seanan Murphy Carolyn Purcell Patrick Spencer JD Stanley
November 2009
Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG)
Cisco IBSG Copyright © 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
White Paper
Cloud Computing in the Public Sector:
Public Manager’s Guide to Evaluating and Adopting Cloud Computing Executive Summary
Cloud computing—delivering infrastructure, services, and software on demand via the network—offers attractive advantages to the public sector. For example, it has the potential to reduce information and communications technology (ICT) costs by virtualizing capital assets like disk storage and processing cycles into a readily available, affordable operating expense. Some public sector organizations have made early moves into cloud computing. For example, in Washington, D.C., all 38,000 city government employees have unlimited access to Google documents and services such as Gmail. The U.S. General Services Administration recently announced moving the government-wide portal usa.gov to the cloud and issued an RFI for cloud infrastructure services. In Japan, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has announced plans to shift all government agencies into a private cloud environment by 2015. One of the most significant cloud computing opportunities for the public sector is the ability to share ICT resources among multiple agencies. While governments have tried hard to create frameworks geared toward shared services, these have not always been successful. Cloud computing offers an easier and less burdensome route to more efficient and effective public sector information management. This may be especially true for developing countries that do not have the technology, skilled personnel, or resources to create world-class ICT infrastructures. Of course,