How to Manage a Public Sector Agency's IT Infrastructure Migration to the Cloud

When you’re migrating a governmental agency to the cloud, you don’t always know what challenges you might encounter. For example, we once migrated an on-premises county agency and discovered a single machine running a Microsoft Access database that triggered ambulance responses for the entire county. No backup. No redundancies. Just a lonely MDB file.

This example shows that every public-sector migration presents its own puzzle. Securely migrating governmental agencies often is less about technical know-how and more about understanding the organizations and people you’re serving.

Good questions make a successful migration

If you’ve worked in or for the public sector, you know there are no centralized standards for governmental agencies. Many of these agencies’ systems were built on an island. They were managed locally, and most rely on some kind of legacy system. Therefore, each system has its own nuances and the onus for a successful, secure migration is on whoever is helping develop the agency’s migration plan.

Good plans are based on specific situations and the unique needs of each agency. Migrating governmental agencies is all about flexibility. Your approach must be flexible enough to bend to whatever systems, needs, and security requirements the agency has.

The key to tailoring a flexible migration plan is developing a deep understanding of the agency itself. This means asking the right questions. Most agencies rely on the contractor’s expertise when it comes to the actual migration and the new systems workers will use. That’s why it’s vital to know every inch of the agency’s current system and needs before the migration begins.

The heart of every migration: Change management