Public-sector organizations in the U.S. are still rapidly adopting private and hybrid clouds, increasing the need for managed services and hosting, according to a new research report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.
The 2023 ISG Provider Lens™ Private/Hybrid Cloud — Data Center Services report for the U.S. Public Sector finds many state, local and educational (SLED) organizations are migrating or modernizing legacy applications, often in response to changes in work modes and service delivery caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. They continue to seek outsourcing engagements, which until recently were rarely used in the sector, to manage increasingly complex IT environments.
“It’s hard to see an end to this growth. Every factor that drove public-sector IT transformation in 2022 is still accelerating,” said Nathan Frey, partner and lead, ISG Public Sector, for the U.S.
Those factors include overall cloud adoption, increasing use of edge computing, rising security threats, the end of life for legacy software and hardware and a growing embrace of new computing styles and development methods, the report says. The pandemic generated new demand for hybrid work modes and more online services, and it triggered a wave of retirements in a sector already suffering from an IT skills shortage.
New private and hybrid cloud infrastructure and services to meet these demands make public-sector IT environments, which typically include several generations of separate on-premises and cloud applications and systems, even more complex, ISG says. Managed services providers are stepping in with monitoring, control and management capabilities that have been lacking in many public-sector IT departments, making operations more cost-effective and sustainable.