Editorial

What do public sector organisations need to consider before moving to the cloud?

TDP spoke with Richard Hartill at IT consultancy to the public sector, Northdoor, about the risks and rewards of moving to the cloud.

Posted 5 April 2022 by Christine Horton


Like many private sector organisations, those in the public sector have been increasingly turning to cloud computing to realise the associated benefits, but also to help with a changing work environment and deal with increasingly sophisticated security threats.

Indeed, this enthusiasm for the cloud has been reflected by regulators who on the whole have accepted the need for public sector organisations to turn to public cloud providers, to help with an unprecedented level of change, says Richard Hartill, client account manager, public sector at IT consultancy Northdoor.

“Now in 2022 industry analysts are predicting further acceleration of cloud adoption, post pandemic, as organisations look to operate an on-going hybrid work environment,” he explains.

“The public cloud computing market in the UK is expected to reach an estimated £11 billion in 2022. This estimate encompasses business processes, platform infrastructure, software management and security services delivered by public cloud services,” says Hartill.

However, whilst this should be considered a real step forward, it is important to understand that like any major change or decision, a move to the cloud has to be fully considered and weighed up.

“Despite the many benefits, the cloud is not the right move for all organisations. Indeed, the amount of highly sensitive data that resides within the public sector makes the decision to migrate to a cloud environment all the more critical to get right,” he says.

What do department leads need to consider?

Aside from properly thinking through how they need to manage their data security, Hartill says that moving to the cloud is not automatically less expensive than an on-premises solution.

“Organisations need to ensure they fully understand the cost of moving to the cloud, as well as the cost and complexity of returning any data back to an on-premises environment, should they wish to in the future. This is important so that they don’t become hostage to their cloud service provider.

“In addition, balancing the convenience of public cloud computing with the need to maintain integrity and security of sensitive data is challenging. It is not only users of cloud services who are at threat from cyber security attacks. Service providers are also being attacked, as a means to gaining access to their client’s environments and data. Consequently, the UK Government has highlighted regulatory requirements that will be brought in to ensure service providers have an increased level of resilience. Nevertheless, organisations still need to review their safeguarding strategies before making the move to public cloud.”

Tips when considering cloud

Here are Hartill’s tips for any public sector organisations considering moving to the cloud. Above all, they should:

  • Understand the costs involved in moving to and from the cloud.
  • Understand any complexity of managing sensitive data when systems aren’t their own.
  • Understand how to secure their systems and data beyond the security provided by the service provider.
  • Understand what type of data they hold and process (particularly highly sensitive data such as PII) and the risks and implications in the event of a breach resulting in that data being compromised.
  • Ensure that they have the right back-up solution in place and a tried and tested disaster recovery solution and process.
  • Continuously review their security processes and policies.
  • Likewise, they need to ensure the services which they are running in the public cloud are rightsized for their needs to prevent over-spend or compromised performance.

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