Study finds government agencies elevated emphasis on cloud provider security

SDxCentral reports that a study by Forrester found 74% of government agencies prioritize security when selecting cloud providers, while 57% of agencies named data security as a concern as they transition more into the cloud. The study, which was commissioned by VMware and obtained responses from 500 leaders and IT decision-makers at various federal, state and local government agencies in the US and Canada, found that other priorities in agencies' sights include reducing total cost, which was named by 67% of respondents, interoperability and ease of use both at 66%, agency contracting equity goals at 63% and regulatory compliance at 53%. The report said the most successful organizations employed complex multiple cloud environments that mix cloud, cloud management tools, security tools and cloud-native applications while using the "cloud-smart approach" of centralized management of cloud resources to enable the use of modern data resilience techniques, increase interoperability and reduce complexity. However, they also struggle with security, compliance and retraining current staff to fill gaps.