13 billion reasons to adopt Cloud computing

In March 2015, George Osborne announced £ 13bn of cuts from government departments over the next three years. In the Emergency Budget, Osborne is expected to announce the Government's first steps to achieving this -- anticipated to include a renewed focus on improving government efficiency, boosting public sector productivity and interdepartmental collaboration.

According to the Cabinet Office, efficiency, productivity and collaboration gains and the reduction of IT costs are all largely dependent on being 'Cloud First' i.e. the wider use throughout the public sector of cloud computing platforms.

Cloud adoption undermined through lack of confidence
But a Dods Research study of more than 5,000 UK public sector workers, commissioned by Huddle, reveals that:

Only a third (35%) of public sector staff are comfortable using cloud IT
An almost equal number (36%) say they haven't used cloud computing before
Nearly a quarter (24%) said they lacked confidence to use cloud computing.

More concerning is the view from public sector IT department employees. While a greater proportion (47%) do feel comfortable with cloud computing, nearly a quarter said they had never even used cloud computing services.

"The public sector frontline is stuck between a rock and a hard place," commented Alastair Mitchell, co-founder and CMO of Huddle. "On the one hand, staff are being asked to remove £ 13bn of spend, but on the other, the new cloud-based IT infrastructures that are key to a large proportion of these savings are not yet sufficiently understood or trusted enough to be widely deployed. UK government has to up the rhetoric on cloud benefits and training, else the cuts are simply not possible."
The Huddle report, "Meeting the Digital Challenge: How well is the public sector embracing cloud computing?", also probes into the reasons behind such low confidence in cloud computing:

92% of public sector employees cited data security concerns
85% had concerns around the time and effort required for migration to cloud platforms
83% worried about conflict with existing technology

Improved collaboration undermined by preference for outdated practices
The study also discovered that despite aiming for a 'Digital Government' underpinned by cloud platforms, collaboration in the public sector is inefficient, insecure and anachronistic:

43% of public sector employees collaborate by printing documents and sending them in the mail
27% work in partnership with external teams by printing documents and sending them by courier
18% rely on USB drives

"These behaviours are the antithesis of collaboration and efficiency," commented Mitchell. "If cloud platforms are not trusted or believed to be beneficial, collaboration cannot take place, and so insecure and inefficient approaches to co-operation are filling the void. There's no reluctance to collaborate -- it's just that staff are not yet convinced by the tools being offered to them, making it essential that UK Government provides more education on cloud platforms and their benefits."

"It's really very simple. If public sector employees -- and in particular those in IT roles -- are not convinced of the benefits of cloud computing and the changes to working practices that can be delivered through it, then the £ 13bn public sector savings are not realistic." concluded Mitchell.