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How government can reignite its progress to the cloud

Jaimie Boyd, Christine Cederberg, and Kevin Young

The pandemic helped governments in Canada advance toward effective and coherent cloud adoption. But systemic barriers continue to hamper their efforts. What does the public sector need to do to make bolder strides?

Why is cloud adoption in Canada’s public sector progressing less quickly than in other comparable countries? To answer this question, Deloitte recently reached out to cloud leaders in the Canadian public sector. We spoke to people at all levels of government—municipal, provincial, and federal—and from several major cloud technology companies.

We asked the government cloud leaders where their organizations are in their cloud journeys. We discovered that even though many of them made progress during the pandemic, they continue to face systemic barriers to cloud adoption and modern service delivery.

Seeing cloud adoption clearly—promise and progress

The cloud offers governments an expansive toolkit. It can help them fulfill their missions faster and more effectively. Other benefits include reducing technical debt, accelerating service innovation, supporting sustainability goals, and offsetting talent shortages—to name a few.

We found that governments in Canada recognize the benefits of the cloud. We also found that they tend to be near the beginning of their journeys. Compared to other leading countries, one leader told us, “Canada is five years behind.”

The roadblocks

What’s slowing cloud adoption in the Canadian public sector? Our research revealed four major systemic barriers:

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  • 1. Access to talent. Cloud leaders flagged challenges in hiring and a lack of cloud competencies as top barriers to adoption. Our interviewees repeatedly shared concerns about government’s ability to offer competitive compensation. They also worry about not having adequate training or the opportunities to work with leading technologies to upskill existing employees and entice new talent.
  • 2. Financial management. Leaders face complexity in navigating cloud finances. They struggle to compare and communicate the costs of the status quo versus the costs of cloud adoption. It can be difficult to realign perceptions of capital expenses and operating expenses in relation to a cloud environment. It can also be challenging to communicate a business case for moving to the cloud that stresses value creation as much as cost advantage.
  • 3. Security. Interestingly, security is now seen as a driver for cloud adoption rather than a barrier. Respondents observed a growing consensus of the cloud as often more secure than legacy platforms. But there are still challenges when organizations apply traditional security review processes and thinking to cloud deployments. Cloud leaders see lots of opportunities to improve security processes. They need security frameworks that are appropriate to cloud technologies. They would like to see less duplication in security reviews. They would also like clearer roles and responsibilities around cloud adoption for both internal teams and external vendors.
  • 4. Organizational alignment and collaboration. Cloud adoption requires new ways of working. It requires better integration and empowerment for purpose-led mission teams. Activating shared services teams can make it easier to provide cloud services with speed and agility. Senior leaders also have an important role to play. They have critical opportunities to help dismantle organizational silos and set cloud priorities.

The cloud as a mission accelerator for government

In Deloitte’s 2021 Canadian cloud adoption survey, 69% of government respondents indicated that they were very motivated to accelerate their organization’s move to the cloud. They attributed most of the value to the cloud’s ability to:

  • Drive better business performance (41%)
  • Create an ecosystem for better data sharing (35%)
  • Establish more secure and resilient infrastructure (32%)

Fast-tracking the journey

So, how can government overcome these roadblocks and achieve their cloud goals faster?

  • The first step is to set the direction. It’s important to define and communicate a vision for achieving the mission to move to the cloud. Doing so helps sustain focus and commitment to the multi-year journey ahead. Key steps to consider include aligning on accountabilities for implementation, breaking down siloes, and taking ambiguity out of the delivery model.
  • Next, create enabling conditions. Update legacy policy barriers, fix the funding model, modernize security, and empower shared services teams to support strategic cloud adoption across departments.
  • Finally, align for the future. Integrate cloud strategy with the business strategy, bolster the talent value proposition (compensation isn’t everything), and leverage the vendor ecosystem to build capability and drive innovation. Above all, establish a great cloud culture by developing new ways of working, learning, and delivering on the mission.

Call to action for governments across Canada

Government organizations have unique opportunities to address their cloud challenges head on and accelerate progress. We believe that cloud adoption can become a reality for the public sector in Canada. The cloud is a mission enabler. It can support better government services, enable reimagined talent experiences, and contribute to a more resilient nation.

To find out more about our research findings and our perspective on the path forward, please read the full report: Capitalizing on government’s cloud momentum: How to accelerate mission-critical outcomes in the Canadian public sector.

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