Michelle Rudnicki, vice president of public sector at Virtustream, has said agencies planning to transition mission-critical applications to the cloud as part of information technology modernization should understand first the potential barriers.
“Clearly understanding the barriers is instrumental in helping decision-makers evaluate and define the right cloud strategy for their agency’s needs,†Rudnicki wrote.
She noted that data protection is another factor agencies should consider before moving workloads to the cloud and cited the role of agencies and cloud service providers when it comes to security management.
“The underlying infrastructure security management is handled by the cloud service provider while the application security management is handled by the federal agency or is outsourced to a third-party provider,†Rudnicki wrote. “This division of responsibility enables each party to focus on the security components they specialize in, thus ensuring the best possible defense.â€
When it comes to cloud adoption, Rudnicki called on agencies to keep their operating costs predictable by establishing “acquisition strategies that account for the cost of delivering performance to the applications.â€
“Exploring cloud providers that can provide application-level service agreements and those that provide predictable costs for the amount of resources that are used can reduce inefficiencies and create significant cost savings,†she added.
