Delivering seamless and efficient digital services to citizens has become a paramount priority for governments worldwide. As citizens increasingly expect a private sector level of customer experience when interacting with public sector services, the pressure on government agencies to modernise their digital infrastructure has never been greater. One of the most promising strategies to meet these expectations is the adoption of multi-cloud solutions.

Excellent customer experience is intrinsically linked with service availability. In a world where citizens demand 24/7 access to government services, any downtime can lead to frustration and diminished trust in public institutions. Cloud-hosted solutions offer the high-availability and reliability needed to ensure that digital services are always accessible.

Hyper-scalers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud (GC), are at the forefront of enabling high-availability cloud solutions. These cloud giants have built robust infrastructures that can handle massive amounts of data and traffic, ensuring that government services can scale with demand, helping them stay online.

Cloud technology is not static; it is constantly evolving, with new features, improvements, and capabilities being introduced regularly. This continuous evolution allows public sector organisations to leverage the latest advancements in cloud computing to enhance their digital services. However, this also means that government departments must stay agile and adaptable to keep up with the rapid pace of change.

Most government departments have a preferred hyper-scaler for a majority of their workloads, often based on existing relationships, specific service offerings, or compliance requirements. However, with the ongoing Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation into the cloud services market, it is likely inevitable that changes will be required in the future.

With internal skills a critical factor in the adoption of multi-cloud strategies, many organisations base their cloud provider decisions on the capabilities and expertise of their existing teams. Whether these internal skills act as the actual decision-makers or influential factors, they play a significant role in shaping multi-cloud adoption.

To effectively manage multi-cloud environments, organisations need to upskill their workforce and adopt advanced tooling. Professional services companies and the hyper-scalers can provide comprehensive training programs and workshops to enhance the cloud competencies of internal teams. These training sessions can cover multi-cloud architecture, best practices, and the latest tools available for managing diverse cloud environments.

The reasons for adopting multi-cloud solutions differ among organisations and typically include:

Avoiding vendor lock-in

Avoid a dependency on a single vendor whilst being able to adopt best-of-breed offerings from across providers.

Risk mitigation

Non-functional requirements such as disaster recovery, availability, and redundancy may necessitate the enhanced resilience achieved by adopting multiple cloud providers. Additionally, data sovereignty and regulatory compliance needs may require distributing data across various jurisdictions.

Performance and cost efficiency

Leveraging differing pricing models across providers may lead to optimised FinOps approaches and substantial cost savings. Different providers are leaders in different areas, choosing best-of-breed offerings from providers can support performance and cost optimisation.

Innovation

An organisation’s agility and speed to market can be enhanced through access to cutting-edge technology. Each provider leads in different areas; multi-cloud adoption provides early access to the latest innovations.

Enabling the realisation of strategic goals and operational requirements is further driving an increase in the adoption of a multi-cloud strategy among both public and private sector organisations.

Multi-cloud is no longer the complex challenge it once was. Cloud service providers are increasingly harmonising services and interoperability, which is promoting complementary solutions between them. For example, increasingly common use cases are:

  • AWS and Azure are used for application development hosting and Google Cloud is used as an API management layer via APIGEE.
  • AWS and Azure are used for application development and hosting and Google Cloud is used for data and analytics through use of services such as Big Query.
  • AWS and Azure are used for application development and hosting but cloud security management is centralised in Azure using Sentinel.
  • AWS is used for application development and hosting and Microsoft is used for low code / no code application development and hosting.

To get ahead of the impending changes, hyper-scalers and professional services companies must work collaboratively. Hyper-scalers need to continue to provide interoperable solutions that can seamlessly integrate with other cloud platforms.

Professional services companies, like BJSS, have a crucial role to play in helping public sector organisations navigate the complexities of multi-cloud adoption. From strategy development to implementation and ongoing management, these companies can provide the expertise and support needed to ensure a smooth transition to a multi-cloud environment.

BJSS accelerators, such as the Landing Zone, can further bolster this transition by offering pre-configured environments that simplify and expedite the setup of multi-cloud architectures. The Landing Zone provides a secure, scalable foundation that adheres to best practices, ensuring that organisations can leverage multiple cloud services efficiently and effectively. By utilising these accelerators, public sector organisations can mitigate risks and reduce the time required to achieve operational readiness. This accelerates not just the adoption but also the optimisation of multi-cloud strategies, enabling organisations to focus on their core missions while BJSS handles the complexities of cloud integration and management.

Adopting multi-cloud in the public sector is not just a trend; it is a strategic imperative to meet the growing expectations of citizens for high-quality digital services. By leveraging the capabilities of hyper-scalers and the expertise of professional services companies, government agencies can build resilient, high-availability digital infrastructures that deliver exceptional customer experiences. As the cloud services market continues to evolve, staying ahead of the curve with multi-cloud solutions will be key to ensuring that public sector digital services remain robust, reliable, and responsive to the needs of citizens.

The adoption of multi-cloud can drive significant value for taxpayers by preventing vendor lock-in, promoting competitive pricing, and enabling cost optimisation. Multi-cloud strategies allow government agencies to choose the best services from different providers, ensuring they get the most value for money. This competitive approach can result in better pricing and service terms, directly benefiting taxpayers. Additionally, by distributing workloads across multiple clouds, agencies can optimise resource allocation and reduce downtime, leading to more efficient use of public funds. Thus, multi-cloud adoption not only enhances service quality but also ensures fiscal responsibility, making it a prudent investment rather than an expensive overhead.

BJSS has been awarded a place on Lots 3 and 4 of the Crown Commercial Service G-Cloud 14 framework.  Find out more about our services here.