Pacific Northwest Digital Government Summit

Cloud Therapy
The How, What, When and Where!

Linda Gerull
Director of Information Technology
September 2014
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Whats Preventing You from Moving to the Cloud?
Benefits
Examples of Cloud Use
Best Practices & Lessons Learned
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Cloud Therapy
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Impact on Many Systems
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System Security and Data Protection
Performance and Latency
Service
Reliability
Maintenance Windows/outages
Cost Control
Integration with other systems
Regulations: HIPA, CJIS
What if the Internet goes down?
Disaster Recovery
Compatibility Issues
Cloud computing is a one-way street
Network and Storage Constraints

What are your Concerns, Fears, and Questions?
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Concerns Remedies
System Security and
Data Protection
SAML or ADFS, 2 factor authentication,
ISO/SAS certifications, the Contract
Performance/Latency Vendor hardware architecture,
bandwidth, software system
architecture
Service Contract
Reliability References, Contract
Maintenance/Outages Contract
Cost Control Contract and Term of Agreement
Integration Web services, APIs
Regulations Contract
Internet Availability Level of Risk, criticality of system
Disaster Recovery Contract, exercise
Compatibility Service type (IAAS, PAAS)
Cloud is One-way Contract, implement data downloads
Network Constraints Account for additional bandwidth in
cost/benefit analysis
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Quick scalability
Modern software systems
Mobility/accessibility
Adds capacity to data centers
Speed new system implementation
Maybe lowers cost
Raw compute or storage costs are lower
Time to manage systems and vendor, and extra
infrastructure are higher
Reduce capital costs and increase OM costs
Less personnel training
More secure??
More redundant??

Benefits of the Cloud
Google now has 300 information-
security professionals focused on
protecting company and client
data, Bloomberg News
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Infrastructure as a Service:
Storing council videos
Platform as a Service:
Amazon Web Services for SD environment
Software as a Service:
25 SAAS in 2010
Now 60+ systems

Examples of Cloud Use in Pierce County
Popular Offerings
What cloud services does your organization have or will
shortly deploy? (top five answers listed)
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Examples of Cloud Use in Pierce County
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Examples of Cloud Use in Pierce County
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Examples of Cloud Use in Pierce County
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Examples of Cloud Use in Pierce County
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Examples of Cloud Use in Pierce County
New in 2014-2015
Workday Financials
Neogov
Lobbygov
Office 365
Mainframe Re-Platform
Business Case
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Replace mainframe HR, Payroll, Time Entry,
Benefits, Financial systems
Reduce yearly O&M of $1.7 million by
$300,000
Eliminate complex, old technology
workarounds and modernize systems
Reduce the number of system integration
points and points of failure
Reduce the number of spreadsheets used
for data processing (2,000) and unique
time entry collection systems
Adopt Employee and Manager self-service
Configure, not Customize!!
Shift IT resources needed for support
A Business Case for Cloud Technologies
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1. Architect the system (no latency) Start with a SAAS?
2. Vet the Vendor (RFP, reference checks)
3. Start with a solid contract (WA State)

(data, uptime, penalties, ownership)
4. Biannual upgrades and Weekly updates
5. Specify identity management and 2 factor
authentication
6. Work out details of system integrations in advance

Lessons Learned and Best Practices
7. System implementation is Fast
Are users available? Current jobs?
8. During implementation Test, Test, Test!
(lower risk, use for maintenance and training)
9. Training Videos, blog, quick sheet
10. Join the User Community
Application
Pacific Northwest Digital Government Summit
Cloud Therapy

Linda Gerull
Director of Information Technology
lgerull@co.pierce.wa.us
253-798-4923
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