Sead Fadilpašić* says the pandemic has pushed public sector organisations down the path of technical innovation and changed their way of working forever.
Before the pandemic, extensive regulation and senior management resistance were the key roadblocks faced by public sector organisations that wanted to adopt remote and hybrid working practices.
However, COVID-19 has changed all that, steering public sectors organisations down the remote working path.
This is according to a new report from cloud provider, Nutanix which states that fewer than 15 per cent of Public Service organisations now employ no remote workers, compared with 48 per cent a year ago.
The report hints that remote and hybrid working are here to stay, as an increasing number of organisations are deploying technologies to better support these working styles.
At the heart of this effort is hybrid cloud infrastructure; more than four in five global public sector respondents described hybrid cloud as the ideal IT operating model for them.
A year before the pandemic, more than half (53 per cent) ran exclusively on traditional, non-cloud-enabled data centres.
Last year, the same could be said for less than a quarter (22 per cent), the report further stated, claiming that organisations were opting for both private and public clouds.
For the mid-to-long-term, Nutanix expects the number of Public Service organisations running on non-cloud-enabled data centres to drop even further, while the number of hybrid cloud deployments grows.
As they rush to modernise their infrastructure, these organisations are wary of potential threats.
All respondents considered security a significant concern that could affect hybrid cloud management.
Vice President Public Sector of United States Sales at Nutanix, Chip George said the public sector had struggled with IT modernisation efforts, due in part to the regulatory and security challenges in the industry.
“However, the rapid IT changes that were implemented in order to maintain seamless operations at the onset of the pandemic proved that modernisation could be accomplished in a cost-effective and streamlined manner,” Mr George said.
“Looking ahead, I believe the public sector will continue to expand its reliance on hybrid cloud models to support increasingly digitised workplace operations.”
*Sead Fadilpašić is a Bosnia and Herzegovina-based journalist who writes about crypto-currencies, blockchain and new technologies in general.
This article first appeared on the ITProPortal website.
