When you think of the government, you don’t immediately think of an organization that is at the forefront of innovation. Sure, they have all that money at their disposal, but most of it goes here and there to try to help the people of a constituency; and, frankly it isn’t terribly efficient. What may surprise you is that governments are embracing cloud services and it tends to benefit everyone. Let’s see how governments are taking advantage of cloud computing.

Regardless of what your feelings are about government programs, there are a lot of them. For every one of them, there needs to be an online portal. One way governments are able to address these always-growing needs is through the partnerships they enter into. For the populace that depends on these government services, efficiency is an important metric. Traditionally, government agencies hosted their own websites and portals, but with demands and the need for security increasing, more and more of these organizations are using partnerships to facilitate changes in hosting, process automation, and even support. 

Government-as-a-Service

In an attempt to address the rising complexity of governmental IT systems and keeping them secure, there has been a significant push over the past couple of years to take advantage of strategic partnerships with application and website developers as well as cloud service providers. As mentioned above, efforts to make systems easier to navigate, and with the big data capabilities these systems provide, have an interesting place in public service delivery pipelines. 

Consider a government service website. There is a potential for millions of people attempting to access the same or similar services, all the while having agencies filled will civil servants trying to meet the demand placed on them by the people who qualify for the service, as well as the lawmakers and other entities who appropriate monies and dole out a basic framework for the disbursement of those resources. That’s a lot of moving parts, but with established and reputable partnerships, these systems can provide some of the answers and deliver some semblance of efficiency for systems that are traditionally defined by inefficiency. 

Boosting Trust

According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, public trust in government has never been lower. Establishing systems that work for people, without the inefficiency and red tape, is a key to building trust. With these partnerships in tow, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that these cloud-hosted government systems begin to curry favor with long-frustrated citizens.

What do you think about the government working with outside vendors to make their systems more user-friendly and responsive? Leave your comments below and check back soon for more technology-related content.