From data-driven systems on the frontlines to virtualization in support of remote work to supply chain automation for life-saving supplies, government organizations delivered on the promise of their mission by ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the public they serve and by providing vital services to both citizens and stakeholders during a time in history like no other.
As we move forward and build off of these tremendous accomplishments, the challenge for government organizations and specifically IT will be how best to support their digital ecosystems while being fiscally prudent with tax-payer dollars. Some of the most pressing questions being asked of government IT include how to maximize dollars as needs for digital systems evolve. Particularly, in being able to:
- Extend digital equity to underprivileged and remote communities
- Adjust for variabilities in demand for new and existing digital services
- Continue to support a highly distributed workforce
- Provide a safe and secure environment as numbers of people returning to work, school, and play continue to go up
- Deploy smart city/county programs aimed at reducing our environmental footprint and improving efficiencies
Perhaps more than ever, there is a need for certainty in provisioning, performance and outcomes. And for that, it’s vital to look at the underlying infrastructure supporting these digital ecosystems. More specifically, what levels of capacity, sustainability, performance and security are needed to meet demand for dynamically evolving digital use cases and is the current infrastructure whether in the cloud or data center doing so as effectively and as cost-efficiently as possible.
The cloud vs on-premises debate
There is an ongoing debate about where best to run these applications. On the one hand, cloud provides the needed flexibility and on-demand usage requirements for dynamic workloads like those deployed at the height of the pandemic. However, it often lacks the security, compliance and manageability required of a large percentage of government applications. Expensive and unpredictable high data ingress and egress fees, vendor lock-in issues, and network connection dependencies can present additional challenges.
Likewise, opting to maintain an on-premises infrastructure has its pros and cons. On the upside, it delivers the needed cybersecurity and IT control, but it often requires substantial up-front capital for hardware (storage, servers, networking, etc) while legacy architectures can lack the scalability and agility needed for IT to respond quickly in times of urgent demand.
Hybrid cloud has become the go-to answer for many—a mix of public cloud and on-premises infrastructure to meet the nuanced demands of each specific workload. But should we stop there? Is a ‘traditional’ hybrid version of these two platforms really the best option as each sides of the coin still carry their inherent limitations?
Overprovisioning as a safety net
Take overprovisioning as an example. In an all-cloud, all on-prem or even in a hybrid ecosystem, if this one limitation can be overcome, it has the potential to yield significant cost savings and operational benefits.
But down time, especially for government mission-critical workloads, is not an option. After all, we can’t have first responders failing to receive critical data on the frontlines or government officials unable to access time-sensitive emails. As a result, most IT will rightly make sure to over resource their applications. This takes place both in the cloud and on-premises. In fact, recent estimates indicate that idle resources make up as much as 55% of IT assets.[2] The potential for savings from omitting overprovisioning would be substantial.
Reference Figure 1 for a breakdown of the CapEx dilemma that exists with under and overprovisioning.
Figure 1. The CapEx dilemma: With a traditional on-premises model, hardware purchases are completed periodically to increase capacity ahead of projected utilization (blue line), costs accrue in excess capacity (orange line), and underestimating utilization (orange shaded area) leads to an inability to serve your customers.
An alternative: Meet HPE GreenLake
There is an alternative option to the cloud versus on-prem debate. It’s an as-a-service platform called HPE GreenLake that can run on premises, at the edge, or in a colocation facility. It combines the agility and simplicity of the cloud with the governance and control of an on-premises environment.
With HPE GreenLake, government organizations are able to consume the outcomes they want when they want them and pay only for what they use, while IT gains security and control.
HPE GreenLake includes a full suite of preconfigured or customized built-for-purpose solutions, delivering IT outcomes with ready-to-deploy hardware, software, and expertise on-premises in a pay-per-use model. It supports a wide- and growing-range of workloads as a service, including both HPE and partner technologies. Configurations include compute, storage, private cloud, databases, virtual machines, backup solutions, solutions for bare metal and containers.
An end to overprovisioning, a start to sizable savings
Because of its inherent pay-per-use design, HPE GreenLake eliminates the persistent problem of having to purchase excess compute, storage or networking capacity
A recent Forrester Research study also revealed that the benefits realized by those using the service go beyond the initial monetary savings including:
- 65% shortened time to market for deploying IT projects3
- 40% increased IT team productivity by reducing the support load on IT3
One of the largest counties in America is seeing positive results
One of the largest counties in the United States recently deployed HPE GreenLake to help meet storage demands as they carry out plans to go all digital. Prior to GreenLake, they were struggling to keep up with storage demands and lacked the ability to scale up and down when needed. Also, they didn’t have visibility to their costs and usage metrics, but now with GreenLake they are able to gain those capabilities and visibility.
Keep your foot on the digital transformation accelerator
Now is not the time to slow down. To help keep the momentum of this digital transformation going, government organizations need to press on with their plans to implement digital initiatives. As they do so, HPE technology experts are available to ensure that they gain the capacity needed today and scale as user demand changes by leveraging active capacity management, variable monthly payments based on metered usage, and services that simplify IT. Now is the time for organizations to go HPE GreenLake.
Learn more about HPE GreenLake for State and Local Government.
[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how-covid-19-has-pushed-companies-over-the-technology-tipping-point-and-transformed-business-forever
[2] https://www.crn.com/slide-shows/channel-programs/300106216/5-reasons-hpe-greenlake-is-a-hit.htm/2
About the Author:
Scott Koehler is an experienced sales and marketing executive in the technology industry. Scott is an innovative strategic leader and has applied his skills to developing new business models, go-to-market strategies, and as a general manager of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Public Sector sales. Scott is an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin - Madison with a BS degree in Chemical Engineering. He graduated summa cum laude with an MBA from University of Wisconsin – Whitewater.
