Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 07

February/March 2019// Canadian Government Executive / 25 also allows organizations to adopt modern DevOps methodologies, enabling faster application development. As a result, or- ganizations can increase their agility and be much more responsive to customer requirements. Furthermore, cloud allows organizations to deploy advanced technol- ogies such as machine learning and artifi- cial intelligence as relative commodities compared to on-premise solutions. In terms of challenges, obviously cloud is a new paradigm shift in how IT services are delivered, no matter what kind of or- ganization you work for. Both private and public sector organizations can miscal- culate the impact of cloud computing by not viewing it holistically. Cloud services can be procured with the swipe of a credit card, but this can result in significant chal- lenges as the central IT function loses control of critical infrastructure to the point where the organization’s security and compliance posture is compromised. Taking advantage of all that cloud has to offer, securely and efficiently, ultimately requires deploying cloud at scale with the support of central IT, not in small, inde- pendent or one-off initiatives. When cloud efforts are not implemented strategically, the initiatives become iso- lated from the larger enterprise’s goals, regulatory requirements and operational objectives. Then, when the enterprise does make a more strategic move to the cloud, these technology ‘islands’ may need to be redesigned to adhere to the standards and services being adopted. Technical debt, from acting early without a strategic plan or not in step with central IT, increases costs as applications, security configura- tions and services need to be reworked and redeployed later. Q: I can see how within public sector, the challenges, the process and the implementation can be a big agenda. From the private sec- tor side, any advice for implemen- tation within the public sector on how digital can be transitioned a little more smoothly? Cloud computing has changed the under- lying principles of how to build and run IT applications, but it’s not something that can be achieved overnight. It’s a multi- year journey to implement a cloud adop- tion program. To succeed in the adoption of cloud across an organization, it’s critical to ensure the fundamentals are in place as early as possible to avoid sprawling tech- nical debt. We’ve been fortunate to work with cli- ents across industries and countries. There are several best practices that we help our clients to implement at the beginning of their cloud journey as part of our Cloud Foundations at Scale program. The first is to adopt a cloud-native ap- proach. This means that all aspects of the cloud platform should be deployed using automated, pre-defined templates and consumables that contain the enterprise’s security, compliance and governance poli- cies – not by using the cloud provider’s console. This eliminates human error and enables the ability to deploy infrastruc- ture quickly and securely. Second, select the right workload. Se- lecting the first ‘masthead’ application or workload for the organization’s cloud journey is vital to igniting change and en- suring buy-in from all stakeholders. This application will be different based on the DNA of each organization, but it should have several key characteristics, includ- ing: being meaningful to the success of the organization; it is experiencing scale, cost or agility constraints that cloud comput- ing can overcome; and it has a relatively low level of technical complexity. There are other characteristics of ‘masthead’ ap- plications that should be considered as well, but basically, the idea is to learn to walk before trying to run. Third, build a Cloud Centre of Excel- lence. This centre of high-performers and forward-thinkers from within the enter- prise, along with the cloud consulting partner, can steer cloud efforts throughout the organization, maintain momentum, and advocate for adoption. It can evaluate the workloads that make sense to move to the cloud and centralize the cloud strat- egy, ensuring an agile, iterative and hori- zontal capability. Q: It’s certainly an opportunity to improve services for citizens. We’ve been hearing a lot about AI and its impact, and also some of the areas that it can improve services. But there’s also an ethics issue there as well. Would you care to comment on that? It’s definitely a new world. I think that’s where the most exciting changes are hap- pening right now. If we look at the amount of changes in the last 10 years – even in the last three – there has been a signifi- cant amount of change. AI and machine learning are where we’re seeing some of the most impactful change for our custom- It’s a multi-year journey to implement a cloud adoption program. To succeed in the adoption of cloud across an organization, it’s critical to ensure the fundamentals are in place as early as possible to avoid sprawling technical debt. INTERVIEW