Associate feature: The business case for cloud

From Holyrood Connect’s Cloud Services in the Public Sector 2020 Conference

Freeing up resources which can be better spent on service delivery is something all public sector bodies strive for. The cloud platform practice director at Six Degrees, Damon Crawford, emphasised at the Holyrood Connect Cloud conference how the springboard approach is specifically designed to ensure this.

Utilising the cloud is not simply about creating replicas of organisations and its structure online, but also about making them more efficient. Crawford explained “long-term migration plans” are in place for many organisations he works with.

This helps with “getting resources and infrastructure out of your data centres and moving them to a service provider like ourselves. Really what we are trying to do there is release resources within your own organisations so you can focus on the things that are important – delivering services to your users and to citizens,” he said.

Meanwhile Microsoft Scotland Public Sector CTO Blair Lochrie spoke about the option of staff using their own devices for work securely. This is primarily through using the Windows Virtual Desktop for laptops and PCs at home, but the company is also currently working with Android and iOS on this to ensure anyone on any device can use Windows 10. Certainly, this option – while not suitable for everyone in all circumstances – would provide some flexibility and change the way people work.

Nearing the end of the session, conference chair Jos Creese, of CCL, highlighted moving to cloud is much more than an IT solution but also an important business tool. He said: “In terms of exploiting cloud effectively, you’ve got to have a strong business case that ensures that you do persuade business leaders and those that are funding this to make sufficient investment in the due diligence, in the contractual management, in the security and so on.”

The chief officer of digital and technology at Aberdeen City Council, David Gammie, agreed this was crucial. He said it is important to understand the business problem and finding the “pain points”. “It is a business case, not a technology case,” he added.

This piece was sponsored by Six Degrees.