4 Takeaways from Park Place/iGov Survey IT Pros Should Heed

We’ve recently been talking a lot on the blog about the insights uncovered by iGov and Park Place in a survey of over 200 public sector IT professionals in the U.K. We investigated their digital transformations and asked them about the key barriers they still face. Here are the top four things we found out.

1. “Cloud First” policies deserve reevaluation.

Despite the policies insisting on cloud first whenever possible, few public sector organizations have followed through:

• Only 21% of respondents say they adhere to Cloud First.
• Just 6% said their organization’s infrastructure is completely cloud-based.
• More than half (52%) say they embrace cloud at the application, but not the infrastructure, level.
• And 13% still prefer traditional technologies.

These findings mirror other indications—such as the increasing incidence of cloud repatriation—that hybrid infrastructure continues to reign supreme.

2. Few organizations have a plan for overcoming IT challenges.

More than one-third of survey participants said they didn’t know of any plans to overcome IT barriers, such as budget constraints, cybersecurity threats, and compliance issues. This number grew to nearly half (48%) among central government representatives.

Those with a plan did frequently share a common attribute that the non-planners might want to adopt—66% were seeking third-party assistance. These organizations recognize that outsourcing partners can offer affordable, timely access to expertise. They can also slash OpEx and squeeze extra value from existing IT investments, freeing funds for strategic initiatives. And when it’s time to transform, they can help accelerate results as well.

3. Maintenance and service considerations are almost as important as cost.

If you can’t afford it, you can’t have it. Some cynics would say this doesn’t apply to government, but our survey respondents would disagree. Budget was the leading constraint IT departments in the public sector mentioned.

Following soon after, however, were maintenance-related considerations. These value-conscious IT pros want to know that once they invest in a solution, it will perform—and that means having access to responsive, knowledgeable service. In this installment, we went into some of the reasons such organizations should look at alternative maintenance arrangements to get more support value for their tightly managed dollar.

4. Legacy technologies are a fact of life, but new options exist to make the most of them.

More than half (55%) of survey respondents cited legacy technologies as a key challenge for their IT organizations. The fact is, the cash-strapped public sector faces barriers to upgrading infrastructure and must rely on older systems.

This needn’t hamstring operations, however. Accessing a DMSO solution—an integrated provider of discovery, monitoring, support, and optimization services—can improve visibility, increase reliability and uptime, reduce costs, and enhance agility.

And maybe that’s the real takeaway—the right partner can make all the difference. If you’re facing any of the challenges mentioned above, please allow us to show you how DMSO can help. Just contact us anytime.