Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself: The Benefits of Cloud-Based SaaS Solutions for Government

Federal agencies can take comfort in having their systems reside on premises. After all, they recognize that they are charged with keeping government processes and services running smoothly while protecting the sensitive data of people across the nation. Combine their awareness of responsibility and accountability with the daunting thought of a prolonged and potentially issue-plagued migration, and it’s easy to understand the reservations some agencies have regarding a potential transition to cloud.

But while a fear of cloud may have been justified 10 years ago, today those fears are no longer warranted. For starters:

Security

For agencies used to on-premises systems, adequate cloud security might feel a bit elusive and difficult to both achieve and maintain.

FedRAMP and StateRAMP are two cloud security frameworks that ensure government-grade security and provide agencies with peace of mind. Cloud service providers (CSPs) offering one or both frameworks can deploy security protocols quickly and effectively for an agency’s cloud-based data and applications, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA).

For its part, an agency can save considerable resources (time, money, manpower, etc.) by selecting a FedRAMP- and/or StateRAMP-certified CSP instead of deploying valuable IT and procurement resources to evaluate, inspect, and confirm the security of a cloud-based solution.

Administration, operation, and maintenance costs

On-premises systems come with visible and hidden costs. From administration and day-to-day operation to maintenance and floorspace, these systems consume vast amounts of energy and manpower, and they come with hardware costs (including installation) anytime an agency needs to scale its resources.

Costly tasks involved with setting up and maintaining on-premises systems include:

• Installing software upgrades, patches, and hot fixes
• Managing technical projects related to operations, maintenance, and issue resolution
• Monitoring performance, assessing security, and installing security patches
• Ongoing cybersecurity and information assurance
• Hardware and software provisioning

Offloading these tasks to a CSP eliminates most of the associated costs for an agency.

Availability, productivity, and ease of collaboration

An OPEXUS customer survey of federal workers found that 98% of respondents work remotely or partially remote. Whether these employees are in their agency’s office or in a coffee shop three time zones away, they need 24/7 access to tools and data.

On-premises legacy systems lack the scalability to reliably and continuously provide these remote and hybrid workers with the computer resources and access necessary to carry out their duties. On-premises systems also require planned downtime for maintenance and don’t have fallback systems should they go offline unexpectedly. Additionally, it’s harder to enforce security policies for a dynamic workforce using on-premises systems.

Cloud offers the scalability to ensure data and applications stay available and responsive during peak demand times. It provides backup and recovery for downtime and disasters, and it gives security teams software-based visibility into policies and user activities across the network.

Let OPEXUS put your fears of cloud to rest

The OPEXUS platform offers FOIAXpress, eCASE Audit, eCASE Investigations, and the eCASE Workforce Management suite as FedRAMP- and StateRAMP-certified, software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions.

The benefits of OPEXUS FedRAMP-certified solutions

• Lower maintenance costs: We take on maintenance and updates, providing relief for your IT resources and removing the need to replace old, outdated hardware.
• Efficient, streamlined resourcing: Our IT infrastructure frees your agency from the costs of hardware, software, and management.
• Improved customer experience: We manage all updates and upgrades. Your agency and its users no longer need to download or install new software versions and patches.
• Better performance: Users experience increased application processing speed, faster performance, easier configuration changes, 99% uptime, and 24/7/365 support.
• Network security Our Impact Level 2 data center features 24/7 video surveillance, has a designated security officer, and requires Department of Defense Secret Clearances.
• Backup and disaster recovery: We offer redundant energy fallbacks and redundant servers with automatic fail-over across multiple data center locations. Our redundant cooling systems maintain optimal

Discover the benefits of cloud for your government agency

As your team begins planning for the next fiscal year, don’t let fear of change keep your agency stuck in the past. Learn more about how the Federal Trade Commission successfully made the journey from on-premises to the cloud.