Public Sector to Increase Cloud Spending in 2017: MeriTalk

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If you are a cloud service provider targeting government agencies, MeriTalk’s latest report will bring welcome news: according to the new study, 82 percent of public sector cloud adopters say their agency will increase spending on cloud computing in 2017.

The report, released Monday and underwritten by NetApp and Avnet Government Solutions, finds that public sector cloud adopters plan to nearly double cloud use from 35 percent up to 60 percent.

Of course, it’s nearly impossible to talk about public cloud adoption without addressing one of the biggest challenges to cloud: security. Sixty-one percent of respondents said their agency or institution has privacy and security concerns, driving government cloud adopters to private cloud. According to the report, 64 percent of Federal agencies use private cloud, followed by state and local (54 percent) and higher education (50 percent).

“Agencies and institutions must factor regulations, budget constraints, and the limitations of legacy systems – leaving them with little flexibility to respond to evolving mission demands,” Rob Stein, vice president, U.S. public sector, NetApp said in a statement. “Public sector adopters are looking to take advantage of the benefits of cloud, but they need a solution that allows them to manage, migrate, and secure their most valuable assets as needed.”

Cost savings is a top driver for cloud adoption with 65 percent of Federal, 67 percent of state and local, and 59 percent of higher education institutions looking for cost savings when adopting public cloud. More than half of institutions and agencies look to cloud options first when considering new investments.

Web hosting (82 percent), collaboration (82 percent), and backup services (81 percent) are the most common uses for cloud.

For apps that handle sensitive information or are highly specialized, cloud adopters are more likely to select private over public cloud.

While many public sector organizations are planning on adopting cloud over the next five years, MeriTalk said that few are actually prepared for the transition with less than half of cloud adopters assessing the required computing, network, and/or storage needs. Respondents said that email (41 percent) and backup services (36 percent) are still in need of updating before they can move to the cloud.

This first ran at http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/public-sector-to-increase-cloud-spending-in-2017-meritalk