Enable the journey from Cloud First to Cloud Native in UK Public Sector

On May 5th 2013 UK Government announced “The Cloud First” policy, which stated the following:

“public sector organisations should consider and fully evaluate potential cloud solutions first – before they consider any other option” (Cabinet Office)

More recently, the Government Digital Service (GDS) announced that the intention is to move from Cloud First to Cloud Native:

“…we’ve begun to move away from the phrase ‘Cloud First’ and instead begin to think in terms of ‘Cloud Native.’ Cloud First is the policy we've agreed, but it’s not our aspiration.” (GDS)

In my previous blog I examined what this announcement could mean for Public Sector organisations and the types of journeys they’re taking.

So where can Cisco add value along the journeys?

 Personally, I see Cisco and our partners adding value to our customers across their entire cloud adoption journey, as widespread use of cloud matures supported by proactive business and IT leadership driving decisions.

The transition from “As-Is” to a target state “To-Be” operating model in the cloud is not big bang and the adoption will occur in multiple phases, each aligned to specific business priorities.

Each phase of a journey will require increments in capability including people (skills), processes and technology (products/services). For example, as an organisation increases location independent working and consumes more public cloud services the demands on the network change. Consumers will need secure and optimal access to those services from any location, so this drives the evolution of wide area networks (WANs) from MPLS based services to Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) models.

Our customers are looking to Cisco and our partners for a complete cloud approach, regardless of where they are on the journey. They consume cloud services to deliver specific business outcomes, every organisation is at a different point of IT maturity and different compelling events are fuelling their move to cloud. Each cloud adoption journey is different as it must suit a business' individual needs and support all types of workloads - new cloud applications, existing environments, and hybrid models.

Cisco takes a complete approach to cloud with solutions that simplify, secure, and transform how customers work in a multicloud world to maximize business benefits. Whether it’s moving workloads across private and multiple public clouds, consuming software as a service, or writing modern applications that can run on any hybrid cloud, Cisco Cloud helps customers securely navigate their cloud journey.

Cisco’s Cloud Strategy offers customers 5 key capabilities to help them maximise the business benefits of their cloud adoption journeys:

1: Digital Network Architecture - No Network No Cloud

2: Cisco Powered Cloud Provider Platforms - Specialist Providers

3: Intelligent and Actionable Analytics - Business Insights

4: Cloud Management: Any Application. Any Cloud.

5: Cloud Security: The Business Enabler

Cisco’s broad portfolio of IT capabilities can help customers navigate their cloud adoption journeys and achieve business outcomes.