For quite some time, there were insurmountable barriers to cloud adoption for large, security-sensitive, and heavily regulated federal, healthcare, finance, and defense and aerospace governmental agencies. But that has all changed now that the cloud providers have addressed concerns and expanded their offerings.
As a Cloud Solution Architect at NetApp, I’ve seen this remarkable expansion firsthand while supporting customers in these sensitive sectors as they make their cloud adoption journeys.
In this article, I'll offer insight into this growing trend, highlight the special challenges for these organizations, and discuss recent advances in cloud technology that are making this all possible.
Read on to find out more, or use the links below to jump down to the individual sections:
Gartner predicts that global public cloud end-user spending will reach nearly $600 billion in 2023, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.7% from 2022. But while cloud adoption has grown dramatically worldwide over recent years, this growth hasn’t been consistent and there were several barriers that hindered broader adoption.
Government agencies, like other security-conscious organizations, were initially reluctant to adopt cloud technology. The general belief was that traditional on-premises setups provided more control and protection against cyber threats. Yet cyber risks continued to evolve, and on-prem environments proved not safer than the cloud. This realization, coupled with advancements in cloud services, has led more organizations to reconsider the stance against cloud adoption.
Governments and organizations operating with sensitive data have historically encountered unique cloud adoption challenges. Some notable challenges concerning the techno-functional aspects of their operations included:
Despite these challenges, recent advancements in cloud technology and a growing understanding of how to address these concerns have started to break down the barriers to cloud adoption in strategic sectors.
Although sensitive sectors are mostly cautious of cloud adoption due to limited operating control, data sovereignty, and shared responsibility concerns, there are solutions available that can address these challenges.
In addition to the adoption drivers covered above, I've had the opportunity to see the collaboration between cloud providers, technology vendors, and end users give rise to a self-reinforcing cycle of platform enhancement and adaptation.
The cycle works like this: As large, sensitive industries demand more robust and secure cloud services tailored to their specific requirements, cloud providers and technology vendors respond by developing advanced security and protection tools to meet those demands. As a result, these tools and services become more sophisticated, allowing more organizations with sensitive considerations to recognize the benefits and consider joining the cloud. In response to the growing adoption, CSPs and vendors continue to refine their offerings and solve other persistent cloud adoption challenges.
This ongoing cycle not only promotes broader cloud adoption but also drives organizations to constantly evolve and refine their services.
Governmental organizations, once hesitant to migrate due to security concerns, have started to adopt the cloud to enhance their operations and streamline processes.
I’ve had the chance to partner with a number of customers across various high-security sectors to assist them with navigating through the cloud transformation journey with the help of NetApp’s ONTAP-based cloud storage solutions.
These services offer robust data management capabilities, high availability, enhanced storage security, granular access controls, efficient data replication, and disaster recovery solutions that have helped the agencies I’ve worked with overcome any remaining hesitancy about fully embracing the cloud.
Here are two stories where my team at NetApp worked closely with customers who were initially reluctant and unprepared to transition to the cloud.
This prominent financial institution was apprehensive about adopting the cloud and what that would mean for its DevOps, containerization, and compliance challenges. They needed a solution that would not only address their security concerns, but also offer seamless integration and control. Utilizing NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, they gained advanced security and data protection capabilities while migrating their data seamlessly onto the cloud.
With Cloud Volumes ONTAP the company gained robust storage management capabilities and was able to overcome storage challenges and enhance overall system performance. The advanced encryption and data governance tools offered by NetApp ensured that their data remained secure, was protected with efficient backups, and able to be effectively managed in order to align with stringent regulatory requirements.
Just a few years ago, reaching this level of security and efficiency in the cloud wasn't possible. Thanks to NetApp’s advances in cloud technology, even organizations with the strictest security policies can now adopt cloud services with confidence.
Read more about this customer’s success story here.
For organizations with highly classified data such as the military, the challenge of ensuring data security and maintaining network isolation is a top priority.
BlueXP's Private mode offers dark-site deployment to ensure that all data and permissions remain entirely contained within the closed network in the cloud while maintaining complete isolation from the internet. This is especially important as most modern military operations rely on advanced technologies and data-driven strategies that require the highest levels of security and privacy.
With BlueXP deployed in private mode, organizations can utilize Cloud Volumes ONTAP within their restricted cloud region, scan data with BlueXP classification, and protect it with BlueXP backup and recovery, all without any internet connectivity. This was previously unattainable just a few years ago, but advancements in cloud technology now enable even the most security-sensitive organizations to confidently embrace and benefit from cloud solutions without risking their data or operational efficiency.
Although security-sensitive sectors were initially hesitant to adopt cloud services, continuous innovation has led even the most security-sensitive organizations to confidently embrace and benefit from cloud solutions.
As data safety and integrity efforts improve, cloud adoption is expected to increase, especially in security-sensitive industries. Looking ahead, we can expect the continued growth of cloud adoption in public and highly sensitive sectors, driven by ongoing advancements in cloud technology.
At NetApp, we play a vital role in facilitating this migration, ensuring data safety and integrity while meeting stringent regulatory requirements. Our robust, secure, and compliant infrastructure is continuously tailored and optimized to the unique needs of high-security sectors. With an extensive portfolio of cloud services, including Cloud Volumes ONTAP, advanced data protection tools, and security features, we are prepared to cater to the specific demands of industries such as finance, healthcare, defense, and government with confidence.
While security concerns were once the biggest barriers to cloud adoption in security-sensitive and highly regulated sectors, the trend is now changing.
With the continued investment in security by cloud providers and the availability of cloud-native security tools, more organizations are moving their sensitive data and workloads to the cloud with confidence.
NetApp is helping these agencies adopt the cloud with advanced features provided by BlueXP. The age of government cloud is just starting, and NetApp is ready to take that journey with you.