Fireside Chat: The Future of Federal Cloud Adoption

Most U.S. government agencies are drawn to the flexibility and scalability the cloud environment provides. In addition to the basic benefits of the cloud, when a government agency migrates projects to the cloud, they are laying the groundwork to tap into true innovation. Federal agencies are already on a path to digital transformation that is reshaping how government does business, serves citizens, and protects the nation.

Looking ahead to the future of federal cloud adoption and the steps government has already taken, John Hale, Chief of Cloud Services at Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), joined Doug VanDyke, Director of Federal Civilian and Nonprofits at Amazon Web Services (AWS), for a fireside chat at FCW’s recent Cloud Summit. They discussed how agencies have approached their cloud migrations and have taken advantage of the benefits the cloud brings.

While every organization’s path will be unique, there are common patterns, approaches, and best practices that can be implemented to streamline the process and to begin seeing the return on investment immediately. John and Doug both offered tips to those agencies migrating to the cloud ranging from application rationalization and new development in the cloud to understanding security and upskilling federal employees.

One closing piece of advice John offered was: “Don’t be afraid of vendor lock-in. If you make the choice to go with provider A, then buy-in and use every option that they have available to you. Use every API they have available to you, because that is how you are going to see your return on investment.” Learn some more best practices by watching the full discussion here.