Cloud computing is a type of computing that uses Digital transformation in the public sector is now a reality. It has had a massive impact on people’s lives, marketplaces, production systems, business operations across all industries, and society in general. It has also had an impact on the dynamics of government.
By definition, this industry is slower and less responsive, burdened by unnecessary bureaucracy as a result of its massive size, as well as the inherent complexity of issues like privacy as a result of the large number of diverse parties involved. New standards, on the other hand, have triggered developments that are having a significant impact on the industry.
The so-called Digital Administrative Code, or CAD, is one such standard. On March 7, 2005, the first version was published in Italy as Legislative Decree n.82. All papers with legal significance can now be created in digital format, thanks to the CAD’s implementation. The benefits are both financial and non-financial.
Attention: We’re not talking about ordinary document digitization for Public Administrations (PA), but rather dematerialization. The contrasts between these two conceptions will be discussed briefly in the next paragraph.
It’s worth emphasizing that in the PA, digitization and dematerialization are nearly unimaginable without a solid Cloud Computing foundation. This component was also at the heart of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers’ “Strategy for Digital Growth in the Country 2014-2020,” a document released in March 2015. We’ll return to this issue later in the article.
Dematerialization
Especially at the legal and operational levels, digitization and dematerialization are two distinct ideas with two distinct meanings.
“Dematerialization” goes beyond digitization, which is defined as the complete computerization of operations. It is dematerialization that allows paper documents to be replaced with digital counterparts that have the same legal and evidentiary significance. On the one hand, this is an ever-increasing requirement (think, for example, of the issue of electronic invoicing). On the other hand, this historic turning moment must be viewed as a tremendous opportunity with several direct and indirect benefits in the short, medium, and long term.
The level of digitalization in the Italian financial ecosystem is still far below European standards, according to the latest Anitec-Assinform research “Il Mercato Digitale in Italia” (published in 2018). According to the latest DESI report on the state of digitization in Europe, Italy ranks fourth, ahead of only Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania, and far behind countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany (source). There are, however, some encouraging indicators. The digital market in Italy expanded by 2.3 percent in 2017, and this trend is expected to continue in 2018. This is predicted to continue in the next years, with growth forecasted at 2.8 percent in 2019 and 3.1 percent in 2020.
Cloud computing as a goal for the Digital Agenda for Public Administration
Let’s start with the study “Digital Strategy for the Country 2014-2020,” which has already been mentioned. This excerpt in the article emphasizes how Cloud Computing is a critical component of digital transformation in government: “Cloud Computing’s enormous inventive scope has entirely changed the way that IT architectures are treated, making a subsequent road for the transformation of PA’s infrastructures necessary.”
The research examines the main benefits of moving to the cloud in eight key areas:
First and foremost, financial investments in hardware, software, and IT support are being reduced (for purchase, management, maintenance). Infrastructures, platforms, or services in PaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) or SaaS (Software as a Service) mode handle these pieces in the cloud.
The ability to share IT infrastructures, allowing investments to be directed into new service development.
IT resource flexibility, scalability, and resilience.
Software computing performance has increased exponentially.
Virtualization of systems enables for better management (both central and local) of IT infrastructures (DaaS, Desktop as a Service, which allows the distribution of virtual desktops on any device and from any place).
Management of redundant resources to improve system availability and speed (made even more efficient and high performing with the adoption of Hybrid Cloud solutions; we talked about this type of solution here).
IAM (Identity and Access Management, or a system for managing credentials) provides unified access to all databases with user permission profiling. This is a security feature that is critical in Cloud Computing systems.
Energy consumption and expenditures are reduced (an increasingly sensitive aspect, also about green economy policies, not only in the media).
Even in Italy, after all, that has been said, it is unavoidable that we have already progressed from theory to practice. However, this is a relatively recent development. The notion of “cloud-first” has become tangible, as stated in the “Three-Year Plan for Information Technology in Public Administration 2017-2019.” Since April 1, 2019, government agencies have been compelled to prioritize cloud adoption (particularly for Software as a Service solution) over any other technological choice.
In other words, even the PA is responding to a trend that is affecting every industry.
According to a Gartner analysis published in April 2018, cloud users will double by 2021, and the market for cloud computing will rise from $153 billion in 2017 to an expected $302 billion in 2021. Furthermore, according to LinkedIn research, talents linked to Cloud Computing are the most in-demand by employers across all industries right now.
As a result, personalization, which is one of commerce’s oldest secrets, becomes the genuine turning point and ultimate boost for digital transformation: for now and, increasingly, for the future.
