How moving to the cloud will continue to transform the public sector

If there’s one part of the economy that really owned digital transformation in all the upheaval of 2020 and 2021, it’s the public sector.

Overnight, organisations had to find new and clever ways of meeting citizens’ needs. Not only that, they had to make sure that employees could carry on working too.

They rose to the challenge and smashed it.

In fact, a recent report we commissioned from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) showed that the upheaval has hugely accelerated digital adoption in the public sector by more than four years. 39% of respondents said they had made changes in the delivery of services, while 37% have made changes in hybrid working. The report also highlights a 15% spend increase on collaboration tools, and a 9.9% increase in IT equipment spend.

All this continued investment in hybrid working has empowered employees and given organisations the security and protection they need to perform at even higher levels than before the pandemic began. It’s having positive impacts on key metrics too, our research reports:

• 5.9% higher citizen satisfaction
• 5.7% higher employee productivity
• 4.3% higher employee satisfaction

So which way now for the public sector?

The short answer is to keep up the amazing work.

To lock in all that satisfaction, it’s time to make hybrid working permanent. That means putting your network under the spotlight.

If technology isn’t acting as a catalyst for innovation, it’s holding you back.

A lot of the networks that organisations use were never designed to let people access data and applications from beyond the workplace. No wonder they’re clunky and showing their age.

It’s now time to consider moving fully to the cloud. As a cloud-based network solution means people can work from anywhere, on any device. And people can access their all-important data and services in an efficient, secure, and flexible way.

Moving beyond the pandemic, many public sector organisations are finding confidence in SD-WAN solutions. They connect to the cloud from any location, without having to pass through all the traditional architecture.

It’s ideal if you’re providing hybrid working to your employees, as you can prioritise and redirect the relevant data. Plus, you can provide a more seamless experience from your digital services to your citizens.

The cloud is a great way to make information and applications available to anyone who needs them. Due to the highly sensitive nature of public sector data, such as citizens’ personal details, health records, and financial information, there’s been a nervousness around how secure ‘the cloud’ really is.

So you should be thinking about your connectivity and security as one. Using Secure Access Server Edge (SASE) in conjunction with an SD-WAN.

It means that you can secure all your data, the apps and the devices that are using your network, all from a single software platform.

It’s simple, flexible and, most importantly, it makes everything secure and gives you peace of mind.

To get from your legacy infrastructure to a modern network could be easier than you think. You need a partner you can trust, that understands your estate and will move at your pace, to ensure you maximise your journey to the cloud.