Cloud is the Silver Lining in 2021

We are all ready to relegate the past year to a distant memory, but from great challenge comes new perspective. For state and local government agencies the COVID-19 pandemic may have shifted priorities, created new opportunities, and increased expectations for the better. Through innovative and connected technology, municipalities can better utilize data insights to enhance and streamline city services including healthcare, education, emergency response and crisis management, transportation, energy usage, public safety, and more (the list is actually pretty infinite.) The year 2020 gave us a deep appreciation for personal and corporate resilience and agility as new ways of working, living, learning, and doing hit hard and fast.

So where does our 2021 superhero, the cloud, come in?

In the most basic explanation, IT infrastructure is the enabler of technology. The cloud, however, makes managing and utilizing that technology simple. Thus, optimizing technology.

When a city utilizes cloud-managed networking and technology, the outcomes are outstanding.

We surveyed more than 200 global state and local government agencies to learn their thoughts and plans for cloud managed networking. While only 15% currently manage their IT network from the cloud, an additional 41% plan to do so in the next 5 years. Why?

• Agility
• Access to resources
• Lower cost
• Ease of Management
• Improved security
• Network and application availability
• Better data backup
• Lower staffing needs
• Improved user experience
• Analytics data

This blog was originally authored by Lauren Farah, Vertical Solutions Marketing Specialist.