Accenture-A-New-Era-for-United-States-Public-Services-Cloud-Computing

A new era for United States public services
Cloud computing changes the game for federal agencies, enabling better
services and strategic government efficiency

Executive summary
Ten key perspectives on cloud computing in US federal agencies
Five challenges
1. US federal agencies are facing conflicting financial pressures
Federal agencies across the United States government are subject to two conflicting financial pressures. First, they need to
invest large amounts of taxpayers’ money to provide public and citizen-centric services. Second, they have to work within
ever-tighter budgets. One way to reconcile these two challenges is to harness new technology in cost-effective ways,
serving citizens more efficiently and effectively. Given this imperative, the budget-constrained environment creates a positive
context for cloud computing solutions, which offer greater cost flexibility based on use—including via consumption-based
or “as a service” pricing deals—and the resulting shift from capital expenditure (CapEx) to operating expenditure (OpEx).
2. Citizen demand for and expectation of efficient, easily accessible,
digital public services are continually rising
US citizens expect low-cost, high-quality public services, available via an ever-wider array of channels and devices, including
mobile handsets and tablets. To meet these demands, agencies must move towards “digital government,” a goal that our
research shows has support from growing numbers of citizens. This means agencies must take an innovative approach,
ensuring that services are cost-effective, scalable and responsive to people’s needs, while also being flexible and secure.
Again, cloud computing solutions can help meet all these requirements.
3. Federal agencies’ IT functions must prevent “shadow IT” and “IT sprawl”
“Shadow IT” involves executives procuring their own computing services—generally directly from external providers—
to bring capabilities online quickly without explicit organizational approval. It’s a practice that can cause “IT sprawl,” whereby
the range of devices and services within an agency expands, unregulated and uncontrolled. This can pose particular risks for
federal agencies, given the sensitive citizen data they handle. A similar trend occurred when PCs first hit the market and some
users began purchasing their own devices; today there is a risk of this happening again with cloud solutions. Shadow IT and
IT sprawl can be prevented in a cloud computing environment through sound governance and agile, responsive IT provision.
4. Agencies face structural and cultural roadblocks to shared solutions
Historically, government agencies owned and managed their IT in-house, partly because this was deemed the most secure
approach. As a result, there are embedded structural and cultural barriers to sharing IT infrastructure and applications with
other organizations, even including other government agencies. However, today’s demands around the cost, efficiency and
integration of public services mean sharing services and solutions is increasingly imperative. Cloud computing can provide
a solution to sharing services and solutions in a controlled, cost-effective and secure way.
5. Concerns over data privacy and regulatory issues are barriers to cloud adoption
Concerns over the security and privacy of sensitive agency and citizen data present challenges to federal agencies’ cloud
adoption programs. However, these worries are receding with the effective use of cloud computing by various agencies
and the successful rollout of initiatives such as the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP).
At the same time, cloud security is constantly being improved as the relevant technologies are enhanced. We believe
that moving to cloud computing can, in some circumstances, actually increase security, as it can remove any existing
weak spots and enable tighter controls to be introduced across the whole IT picture.

Five opportunities
6. Cloud computing will help make digital government a reality
Digital technologies offer significant opportunities to change the way government works, resulting in greater efficiency
and the development and delivery of public services that are more responsive to the needs of individual citizens. Cloud
computing has the potential to support both of these goals by introducing four key benefits: lower capital and operating
costs; flexible capacity based on need; the ability to bring new services to market quicker; and high-performance
computing power. Through these attributes, cloud computing can underpin the benefits of digital technologies and
bring key advantages in delivering low-cost, high-quality public services.
7. A new landscape for public sector cloud computing will evolve
When it comes to the cloud, a public service organization can choose to be one of three things: a user, a provider or both.
We believe that the market will evolve to allow government agencies to decide what role is best for them. Already, large
federal agencies are looking to use cloud-enabled platforms to provide lower-cost, higher performing shared services
to other—generally smaller—agencies.
8. Cloud computing will usher in a new way to run IT
Moving to cloud computing will have a major impact on the way federal agencies source, provision and manage IT services.
Instead of creating bespoke systems, the IT function will focus on choosing and managing preconfigured components,
becoming a data custodian and services director for the agency—and possibly for other agencies as well, by providing
a cloud management platform. There are also major impacts on talent; skills in IT service delivery needing to be blended
with capabilities ranging from service strategy development to cloud supplier management.
9. Leading agencies will develop and demonstrate robust cloud sourcing
principles and strategies
Security concerns mean that for most agencies, the first step toward adopting cloud computing is creating internally
managed private cloud infrastructures via virtualization. From there, more and more agencies are progressing toward
hybrid environments with elements of a community or even—in some cases—public cloud. Some agencies are also looking
to extend the shared benefits further across government, by offering their own cloud solutions to other agencies. A further
step would be managing or “brokering” third-party cloud services for other federal organizations. In the military domain,
the US Department of Defense has created a potential model for the future by appointing the Defense Information Systems
Agency (DISA) as its cloud services broker.
10. Our eight recommended opportunities for cloud computing in federal agencies
Digital government enabled, underpinned and powered by cloud computing promises huge benefits for US government
agencies and citizens alike. To help realize these benefits, we recommend eight key steps for government agencies.
• Proactively develop and implement a “Cloud First” strategy.
• Recruit and develop cloud skills to enable the strategy.
• Proactively set a style of IT governance that incorporates cloud solutions and enables a new cloud-enabled role for IT.
• Invest in common cross-agency infrastructure, services and pilot projects.
• Seek out and pursue individual opportunities for cloud-enabled federal services, including considering how public and
private cloud might play a role.
• Develop private clouds for now; think hybrid for the future.
• Examine the potential to offer cloud management platform or brokering services for other agencies—or to go to other
agencies to source required services.
• Participate actively in moves to create a platform that incorporates government-wide services.

Biographies
Gaurav Harnal
Gaurav is a senior manager in Accenture’s
Health and Public Service Technology practice.
Based in Washington DC, Gaurav has worked
with numerous commercial industry and
government customers since joining Accenture
in 2003, delivering technical strategies and
solutions for on-premise and cloud consumption
on complex ERP transformation programs.
Annette Rippert
Annette Peterson Rippert is a Managing Director
in Accenture Federal Services. Her organization
delivers solutions leveraging the latest emerging
technologies, as well as those based on
established platforms such as Oracle, SAP and
Microsoft. Ms. Rippert is the Federal strategy
lead for cloud computing and mobility.
Stephen Suggs
Steve is a senior manager within Accenture
Federal Services and an Accenture-certified
delivery dead and senior technology architect.
Steve puts his 16 years of experience
designing, developing, delivering, and
supporting enterprise systems to work
for federal civilian agencies, with a focus
on cloud strategy and cloud brokering.
Timothy Shea
Tim is a Managing Director with Accenture
Federal Services. Tim has been with Accenture
since 1994 and has been working in the Federal
Government space since 2000. Tim has led
large infrastructure and application build and
operations programs, including a recent build
out of a private cloud for a large federal agency.
For more information
To learn more about Accenture Federal Services’
work with federal agencies, please contact:
Jim Menard
james.l.menard@accenturefederal.com
+571 858 2893
Annette Rippert
annette.p.rippert@accenturefederal.com
+1 571 414 2143
Tim Shea
timothy.p.shea@accenturefederal.com
+1 571 414 5551
Accenture Federal Services is a U.S. company,
with offices in Arlington, Va., and is a wholly
owned subsidiary of Accenture LLP. Accenture’s
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federal organizations with clients at defense,
intelligence, public safety and civilian agencies.
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