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ScienceLogic FOSE Survey Reveals Progress and Challenges in Government Cloud Initiatives

Two-thirds of federal agencies have identified applications to move to the cloud, and half those have started the migration process to cloud computing per Federal CIO Vivek Kundra’s Cloud First policy. This is according to a survey of 113 FOSE attendees conducted by IT operations and cloud management software provider ScienceLogic. Of those that have started migration to the cloud, 92 percent are concerned about the performance and availability of services hosted in the cloud, and 63 percent say they will require additional tools to manage and monitor government cloud resources.

The Cloud First policy, laid out by Kundra in December 2010, requires all government agencies to identify and migrate three ‘must move’ services to cloud solutions within 18 months, with at least one service fully migrated within 12 months. According to the survey, the majority of respondents (65 percent) are concerned that internal budget allocated to implement the Cloud First policy, including new solutions required to manage and monitor IT operations in the cloud, will shrink after Kundra resigns from his position in August.

“While our survey indicates the Cloud First policy has not achieved rapid adoption, two-thirds of respondents have taken some action towards cloud deployments, highlighting the continued desire for cloud computing within the government,” says David Link, CEO of ScienceLogic. “An overwhelming majority however are concerned about safeguarding IT services in this new cloud environment, which may be why swift government cloud adoption has stalled. This is not surprising considering the precursors to cloud, including virtualization and data center consolidation, present their own complex IT management challenges.”

“With Kundra leaving office, uncertainty around budget, tools and staff have put government organizations in a holding pattern,” Link continues. “Technology that enables organizations to expertly manage IT services across a changing mix of data center and cloud environments will be of utmost importance to ensure the success of the Cloud First initiative, even after its strongest supporter moves on.”

The majority of survey respondents also reported that new staffing and/or training will be required to effectively employ cloud services: More than 32 percent will hire staff with cloud skills, 34 percent will train existing staff and 12 percent will do a combination of both, as they begin or continue to migrate applications to cloud solutions. This echoes a survey ScienceLogic carried out at Interop and another conducted by independent firm Gatepoint Research, which found that investment in training existing staff was a key element to support overall cloud goals.

Other key results highlighted in the FOSE survey include:

- Overall, 79 percent of the total surveyed are concerned about performance and availability of applications in the cloud

- Only nine percent are not concerned with the performance and availability of services hosted in the cloud, and 12 percent have not thought about it

- 40 percent say that Cloud First has impacted their planned IT operations in some way

- 38 percent say they are still waiting to see if the Cloud First policy will impact IT operations

- One-third have identified applications to move to the cloud, but have not started migration

- 34 percent have not identified or started migration to the cloud

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ScienceLogic FOSE Survey Reveals Progress and Challenges in Government Cloud Initiatives

Two-thirds of federal agencies have identified applications to move to the cloud, and half those have started the migration process to cloud computing per Federal CIO Vivek Kundra’s Cloud First policy. This is according to a survey of 113 FOSE attendees conducted by IT operations and cloud management software provider ScienceLogic. Of those that have started migration to the cloud, 92 percent are concerned about the performance and availability of services hosted in the cloud, and 63 percent say they will require additional tools to manage and monitor government cloud resources.

The Cloud First policy, laid out by Kundra in December 2010, requires all government agencies to identify and migrate three ‘must move’ services to cloud solutions within 18 months, with at least one service fully migrated within 12 months. According to the survey, the majority of respondents (65 percent) are concerned that internal budget allocated to implement the Cloud First policy, including new solutions required to manage and monitor IT operations in the cloud, will shrink after Kundra resigns from his position in August.

“While our survey indicates the Cloud First policy has not achieved rapid adoption, two-thirds of respondents have taken some action towards cloud deployments, highlighting the continued desire for cloud computing within the government,” says David Link, CEO of ScienceLogic. “An overwhelming majority however are concerned about safeguarding IT services in this new cloud environment, which may be why swift government cloud adoption has stalled. This is not surprising considering the precursors to cloud, including virtualization and data center consolidation, present their own complex IT management challenges.”

“With Kundra leaving office, uncertainty around budget, tools and staff have put government organizations in a holding pattern,” Link continues. “Technology that enables organizations to expertly manage IT services across a changing mix of data center and cloud environments will be of utmost importance to ensure the success of the Cloud First initiative, even after its strongest supporter moves on.”

The majority of survey respondents also reported that new staffing and/or training will be required to effectively employ cloud services: More than 32 percent will hire staff with cloud skills, 34 percent will train existing staff and 12 percent will do a combination of both, as they begin or continue to migrate applications to cloud solutions. This echoes a survey ScienceLogic carried out at Interop and another conducted by independent firm Gatepoint Research, which found that investment in training existing staff was a key element to support overall cloud goals.

Other key results highlighted in the FOSE survey include:

- Overall, 79 percent of the total surveyed are concerned about performance and availability of applications in the cloud

- Only nine percent are not concerned with the performance and availability of services hosted in the cloud, and 12 percent have not thought about it

- 40 percent say that Cloud First has impacted their planned IT operations in some way

- 38 percent say they are still waiting to see if the Cloud First policy will impact IT operations

- One-third have identified applications to move to the cloud, but have not started migration

- 34 percent have not identified or started migration to the cloud

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According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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