INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cloud
English councils address
main challenges of moving
to the public cloud
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reduced costs, which is significant when
budgets are squeezed. However, councils
need to ensure they have a clear roadmap
and ongoing optimisation plan in order
to not only realise these benefits, but also
minimise any unplanned spend.”
The FOI data also reveals that one area
where English councils are embracing cloud
services at pace is email, with more than half
(55%) of English councils already using a
public cloud email service. Further, 90% of
those not using public cloud email currently,
plan to do so within the next three years.
Of the councils using cloud email services,
Office 365 overwhelmingly proved the most
popular option, chosen by 90%; G-Suite
(Gmail) was the second most popular option
with 10% of councils using it.
F
reedom of Information (FOI) requests
undertaken by COMPAREX UK,
submitted to all London Borough,
Metropolitan, and County Councils in
England, have found that four out of five
(80%) English councils are now using public
cloud services to some extent. Microsoft
Azure is by some distance the most
commonly used public cloud service (94%),
followed by Amazon Web Services (31%)
and Google Cloud (11%). However, the FOI
findings do reveal that so far, councils are
only dipping their toes in the water of public
cloud, with most (68%) running less than a
quarter of their IT infrastructure there.
These FOI requests highlight this limited
adoption is due to a number of challenges
councils face in moving to the public
cloud, with application migration (60%),
security concerns (55%) and compliance
(48%) being cited as the top three. Other
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challenges identified by the FOI requests
are budget constraints (43%), lack of
appropriate skills (40%), difficulty in proving
Return on Investment (ROI) (38%), licensing
concerns (35%) and vendor lock-in (33%).
“The FOI data indicates councils are showing
a growing appetite for public cloud. However,
they still face challenges to adoption
around application migration, security
and compliance. The government’s Cloud
First policy – which dictates that councils
should be looking to increasingly use the
public cloud as their first option – means
that adoption levels will only increase, so
the 40% of councils worried about a lack
of cloud skills will need help addressing
this gap,” said Chris Bartlett, Business Unit
Director – Public Sector, COMPAREX UK.
“Cloud has the potential to deliver significant
benefits, both in terms of productivity and
“The relatively widespread use of cloud
email services signifies an understanding
among English councils of the benefits of
migrating some services to the cloud, even
if there are challenges in migrating more
complex business-critical infrastructure and
applications,” continued Chris Bartlett.
“When it comes to the impact cloud email
services can have, research shows that
successful adoption of Office 365 can
give businesses a return on investment
of 162% within three years. Despite
that, many organisations, including
councils, aren’t unlocking the product’s
full potential – which means they are
not getting all the bang for their buck.
More than that, they miss out on the
cost savings that cloud can deliver. When
councils can overcome barriers to more
widespread adoption and move beyond
using the cloud for just email, they’ll find
the benefits multiply dramatically, along
with their ability to maximise the cost-
effectiveness of cloud.” n
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