An article on cloud storage in GovTech Today features Seattle IT Chief Technology Officer Michael Mattmiller.
The article predicts that even though cloud growth will crest soon, state, county and local agencies are likely to continue their migrations from private to public cloud. State and local governments are seeking the most cost-effective ways to deliver enhanced services to their customers. Security is another key factor. Public cloud providers are increasingly meeting federal standards and boosting internal safeguards, attracting more attention from public sector agencies.
In Seattle, the article says, Chief Technology Officer Michael Mattmiller said the City has maintained applications including its Microsoft Office 365 email system in the cloud for several years and works with other cloud vendors including Amazon Web Services. But he questioned whether cloud will soon become an all-or-nothing proposition for government.
“We opportunistically leverage cloud where it makes sense. Broadly, in the City we see ourselves having a data center that we maintain and control for at least the next five to 10 years,” Mattmiller said, noting that there’s simply not a path to cloud for all of the roughly 1,200 applications the city maintains.
Having three cloud delivery models, Mattmiller said SaaS seems to offer the most opportunity because of the speed at which solutions and access can be deployed. Having moved Seattle’s email system to the cloud, Mattmiller suggested that telecommunications services might be the next candidate for cloud migration.
The article is in the June print version of GovTech Today. Read the full article online here.