States Move to Cloud for Improved Citizen Services

When Gateff was hired three years later as deputy director of data services with the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services, she was brought up to speed on the pandemic-era project that made that visibility possible. OMES had contracted with Google Cloud to quickly build what she describes as a “hub and spoke model” for managing the state’s data, she says.

Oklahoma has plenty of company when it comes to states that are relying on the cloud to enhance citizen access to government services. A recent survey by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers found that 9 in 10 state CIOs report they’re ramping up cloud adoption across their operations.

These CIOs embrace digital transformation because citizens want the ability to consume data and interact with government services from wherever they are, says Tim Crawford, CIO and strategic adviser with the business technology research firm AVOA.

State IT leaders are also simply more familiar with “the way the cloud works” than they were four or five years ago, Crawford says. “That in its own right is driving adoption. They know what the cloud can do for them.”

Integrated Data Enables Centralized Citizen Services

In Oklahoma, the cloud distributes services via the hub-and-spoke model: The hub is the cloud-based infrastructure that serves as a central space for data processing and analytics, while the spokes are the data sources, including the state Department of Health and various other agencies. Previously, each agency in the state had kept its data exclusively within its own systems.

Gateff, who recently left OMES, estimates that a total of 15 agencies now leverage the Google Cloud Platform.

“Each one integrates its data set securely with GCP. We provide a centralized location to share data, create reporting and analytics dashboards, and leverage artificial intelligence where perhaps previously they couldn’t if their data was siloed,” she says.

For citizens, the cloud data management model will support a state landing page for residents where they can get everything from driver’s license and state ID applications to information on housing assistance. Those who register and create an account can also track the state services they’ve used quickly and safely through a personal online portal.

“It’s an easy one-stop shop,” Gateff says. “Citizens will be able to log in and access their services in one place.”

A Cloud-Enabled Portal Pivot Simplifies Maintenance

A provider of centralized IT services to state and local agencies alike, the Georgia Technology Authority launched its own cloud program with a shift to Amazon Web Services three years ago.

The impetus for the migration was rooted in a digital modernization directive issued by the state’s governor.

“There was a decision made at the executive level that it was time for everyone to get out of the data center. The idea was to reduce costs and improve resiliency and stability by relying less on on-premises infrastructure, says Chuck Robinson, GTA section director.

For GTA, the obvious place to start was a portal application it uses to manage a wide variety of services and workflows for government employees and citizens. Car dealers turn to the portal to instantly run vehicle history reports, for example, while citizens use it to access vital records such as birth and death certificates.

GTA started the migration in the fall of 2021, Robinson says, and went live with the new portal the following Labor Day. Today, he adds, GTA’s customers are “ecstatic” because the solution is never down and it’s so easy to use. His team is happy as well, largely for similar reasons.

“Maintenance is easier, visibility is better, and I can control costs a lot better,” he says. “All in all, I’d call it a significant improvement compared with what we had before.”

RELATED: Cloud optimization remains a priority for state and local agencies.

Lift and Shift Achieves Greater IT Resilience

A recent cloud migration is also paying dividends for the state of Alaska. Like Georgia and Oklahoma, Alaska had been hamstrung by its legacy infrastructure as it looked to rapidly improve security and expand digital services for constituents. The state’s Office of Information Technology considered its options and ultimately decided to move everything it could to Microsoft Azure, says CIO Bill Smith.

One big driver for the lift-and-shift was Alaska’s unique geography, Smith explains. In Juneau, the state capital, government offices depended on undersea fiber for broadband connectivity. “Periodically, we’d get a fishing trawler that would catch on a cable and make applications located there unavailable throughout the state.”

Also factoring into the move was the recognition by Smith and his team that a vetted cloud service would come with certain features that could help them do their work more effectively, “like all the new AI tools that are emerging now, and built-in governance and security protections,” he says.

EXPLORE: A strong cyber resilience strategy is essential for organizations.

On top of that, most state agencies were already using Microsoft resources. “We pretty much knew what we could expect by starting our cloud journey with moving to Azure,” he says.

In all, Smith says, by the time his team was finished, it had moved more than 1,100 applications into a cloud environment of some kind. The bulk of the work was completed in just 21 months with help from Azure VMware Solution, a seamless rapid migration technology.

Among the first apps to make the move were those in a suite of tools managed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The division is the source for hunting and fishing licenses, tags and permits, Smith explains.

“It’s a resource just about every Alaskan knows well, and a lot of tourists use it too,” he says.