- 22 May, 2019 - 4 ’ read

Why U.K. Government is heavily investing in Cloud Technology.

Cloud, Digital Optimization, United Kingdom

In line with Imagicle‘s expansion into the U.K. theater, this week our host Ivy Gardner will help us understand the importance of shifting to the Cloud for a market that, over the next few years, will have to invest consistently in the most agile, portable and shared form of communication. Find out what’s happening in the UK clouds and what we talk about when we refer to the digital transformation.

What’s going on among the U.K. clouds.

Although migrating to the cloud can be pricey, the UK government is more than willing to spend £1 billion each year to do it. Government figures show that in the last two years, the country spent a whopping £1.1 billion on cloud services—more than double the £421 million spent between 2014 and 2015. These services include hosting, software, and support, all of which are necessary tools for almost every institution in this day and age. Regional Director for UK&I at Citrix, Darren Fields told Tech Radar that transitioning to hybrid cloud is more than necessary: “It is crucial in helping government CIOs to accelerate their digital transformation while delivering a host of other business benefits, with the cloud typically being more cost-effective, scalable, secure, and flexible than legacy alternatives.”

Why does the government need digital optimization?

Cities are becoming smarter and more efficient, and the adoption of innovations like the Internet of things (IoT), blockchain, and cloud technology has increased. Keeping up with these developments is crucial if the government wants to be able to take advantage of these innovations, not to mention create regulations that will allow more businesses to use them. However, Open Access Government claims that over half of the government’s departments are not ready for a digital transition, with some even looking at new tech as an expensive waste of resources. This is a mistake as digital transformation improves services and operational efficiencies, as many routine and mundane government tasks can be automated. Not only that, digital optimization like cloud computing can also allow the government to save money, as additional servers and hardware for storage are no longer necessary. Transitioning to the cloud would free up the government’s IT department to work on other projects because cloud services already come with regular maintenance updates, security checks, and procedures. Collaboration between government agencies would also become simpler with cloud solutions, as employees are able to access documents and contracts no matter where they are.

How to make the transformation.

Mighty Gadget reports that the number of UK businesses adopting cloud technology has increased by 18% since 2014. In fact, 42% of companies are already using cloud-based solutions compared to the European average of only 26%. The fleet industry is one of the best examples as big data has revolutionized the way the delivery industry operates. New software and technology have changed not only fleet management but also the products and services that the industry offers.

Companies are now using big picture reporting to allow drivers in different locations to access one server. This allows for better use of equipment, as assets are not left idling. Big data also gives fleet managers access to routing data, which can help them direct their fleets to the fastest routes as it helps their drivers avoid road works, bad weather, and other time-consuming issues. While the above example is specific to the trucking industry it does give a clear idea of how cloud technology can help businesses, as well as the government.

The government, as well as the public and private sectors, aren’t the only ones trying to establish a foothold in the cloud market. Cloud computing providers like UKCloud are also trying to make a mark in the growing industry, with the company recently confirming that they got a £25m investment from the Digital Alpha Advisors fund backed by Cisco. Technology News reports that UK digital minister Margo James praised the investment, saying the advancements will help the sector to maintain its lead as the best destination for inward investments. In this post on Imagicle Beat, we can see how the expected growth of the market will highly depend on hosted telephony. Not only that, the government needs to incorporate new digital innovations soon, as the growing demand for integrated services will eventually overtake the current systems.

Conclusions.

Bottom line, this analysis on the expansion of the Cloud – necessary in the case of the U.K. market – shouldn’t trick you into thinking that On-Prem communications are an endangered species: far from it.

As widely described in one of the previous posts, despite the growth of the Cloud, the UCs market is still somewhat divided between UCaaS and On-Prem solutions, and much still depends on the specific needs of each company.

Imagicle constantly works to offer its customers the best of both worlds, developing solutions available on their on-prem infrastructure or as UCaaS, in order to facilitate a smooth transition to the latter, flexible type of services but also to guarantee the soundest solutions for those who intend to continue to exploit their existing IT structure.
As long as you are happy, Imagicle will keep finding the very best solution for your needs.

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Guest post by Ivy Gardner, tech blogger focused on the latest tech trends. Her main interest is examining how new innovations like AI and cloud technology will impact society. She believes that there needs to be a greater understanding of how technology will benefit the workforce.