Survey: Cost savings key driver for government cloud adoption

The public sector is inching closer to a more widespread adoption of cloud computing, with cost savings cited as the greatest driver for state, local and federal governments, and governments around the world.

A new survey from auditing firm KPMG shows that more than 40 percent of government respondents globally say they are already testing or implementing cloud solutions, and nearly 30 percent are working on a cloud strategy.

A majority -- 76 percent -- said saving money is either important or very important. But nearly one-fifth said they didn’t expect to see much of change in their organization post-cloud adoption.

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As for what type of cloud environments governments are considering, private cloud topped the list (32 percent), followed by hybrid clouds (26 percent), public clouds (22 percent) and community clouds (16 percent).

Security was listed as the biggest concern by almost half (47 percent) of the 429 government executives and managers from 10 countries. Fifty-seven percent of U.S. respondents cited security.  However, nearly 80 percent of the respondents said they would feel more at ease if cloud services were certified by a government body.

That type of certification and accreditation already exists in the U.S. In December 2011, U.S. CIO Steven VanRoekel announced the launch of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program – FedRAMP -- which provides agencies and vendors with security standards for cloud products and services.

Nearly 30 percent of the respondents said their organization’s CIO should spearhead the implementation and manage service performance of external cloud providers. A senior director or a government equivalent of an industry CEO was the second most popular choice (21 percent).