Forty-six percent of state and local governments have deployed or are planning on deploying applications in the cloud, according to a recent survey, despite the fact that governments, because of financial and regulatory constraints, are usually more reluctant to adopt newer technologies than the private sector (cloud computing is already currently being used by 54% of businesses in the U.S., for example). As might be expected, the same survey also found that the main reason that state and local governments select cloud computing is that it lowers costs through decreased hardware and software purchases and maintenance. Some of the other reasons that governments select cloud hosting are enumerated by an IBM software architect in this Wired article, and they include:
- More predictability. By signing up for cloud hosting, governments no longer have to handle or pay for the most unpredictable aspects of an IT infrastructure, including hardware and software failure. In addition, most cloud hosting solutions—including those offered by IronOrbit—cost only a low, flat monthly fee. Predictability is especially important for governments due to their inflexible budgets and their obligation to track and keep records of almost everything they do.
- More compliant IT management. Governments handle a lot of sensitive data that they are required by law to protect and preserve. The 24x7x365 availability and the advanced and highly-effective security technologies and techniques of hosting providers like IronOrbit make them the better choice to protect and ensure the compliance of an IT infrastructure than on-site IT personnel.
- Increased flexibility. Governments aren’t known for being very flexible or innovative, but they have the opportunity to be both of these things when they select cloud hosting or application hosting solutions from IronOrbit, which are cost-efficient and highly-scalable. They can start new projects or expand existing ones much easier with cloud hosting solutions.
The Wired article also notes that governments spend only 10% on public cloud solutions of what they do on private cloud solutions ($118.3 million versus $1.7 billion, according to IDC). Private cloud solutions are preferred by governments for the same reasons that many businesses in the private sector prefer them: they perform better and are more customizable, secure, and reliable.
For the best all-in-one private cloud hosting solutions, governments and businesses should sign up for hosted IT infrastructures, application hosting, managed servers, or hosted desktops from IronOrbit. Around-the-clock performance monitoring, multidimensional Orbital Security (including firewalls, antivirus, IPS/IDS, and patch management), Atomic Speed Technology, and managed data backups are included with each IronOrbit cloud hosting solution. In addition, all of our solutions are hosted on dedicated (unshared) servers and can be customized to support any amount of data storage or users.
Sign up for the most secure, flexible, and reliable cloud hosting solutions by contacting an IronOrbit sales representative at [email protected] or (888) 753-5060 today!