A state agency improves performance by moving to cloud

Moving to cloud is a growing imperative for government agencies—especially those at the state level. With any shift to the cloud comes the potential for benefits such as greater speed of business, reduced operating costs, IT simplicity, and enhanced security, which are all key for public sector organizations today.

For one state agency charged with fiscal responsibilities, cloud emerged as a central focus when its leaders sought to tame the complexity associated with human resources (HR) and payroll data while maintaining accountability and integrity. Done right, the move would give stakeholders greater access to data and bolster reliability, optimize costs, and provide scalability to support growth at the same time.

In particular, the agency encountered growing pains with its existing platform, which was oversized, high-cost, and aging. As a result, the team couldn’t move the data as is, or freely, in any other platforms. The choice they faced: Overcome budget constraints and invest in a major capital improvement project for current infrastructure or make a more strategic and cost-effective move to cloud.

The challenge? Understanding the options and defining a path for an effective move. Scalability and costs were important considerations, but the complexities around cloud architecture presented challenges for the organization. Skill sets were also a key focus in planning a move to cloud—given the agency’s reliance on specialized skills for maintaining its existing databases.

In planning and then making the move, the agency and Deloitte worked across organizational borders to develop consensus and make sure that any new cloud landscape would support the agency as needed. Along with the agency, Deloitte collaborated with other organizations, including the state IT department, to help ensure that the project would meet strict technology and procedural protocols for state-maintained data and result in minimal disruption.

Deloitte also brought its long-standing experience with cloud and SAP solutions running on the AWS Cloud, and powered by the Intel Xeon Scalable platform, to bear. They helped fine-tune the database for the applications, adhere to strict Intel, AWS, and SAP technical standards, and ultimately create a new cloud landscape aligned with the agency’s business processes.

With the first wave of its move complete, and a detailed migration template in place, the agency is well positioned to extend its cloud journey. They can scale readily and shift additional systems to the cloud as needed in the future. The ongoing transformation also should allow the agency to take advantage of additional AWS capabilities in the cloud, including services for integration and intelligent automation.