Cloud Enablement: what is it? Cloud PA Enabling Plan Strategy

 

Cloud Enablement traces an evolutionary path from the uneven and fragmented situation of the IT and information systems of the PA towards efficient use of IT technologies.

The aim is to optimize management economies and increase responsiveness in the provision of services, adequately to the needs of society (citizens + businesses).

This is the programmatic manifesto of the Cloud PA Enabling Plan.

In relation to the aforementioned Cloud PA Enablement Plan, the Cloud Enablement Program (developed by AgID and Team Digitale) is the strategy for reorganizing and rationalizing IT processes in public, private, or hybrid cloud environments. This process enables Public Administrations to operate and maintain IT infrastructures using cloud technology and services.

This introductory premise is necessary to understand how the public machine is launching the projects relating to the Next Generation EU, to be implemented through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).

Download the PNRR pdf here. (in Italian)

Technological innovation and digitization represent one of the 3 cornerstones of the National PNRR and will affect every aspect of public, social and productive life: from the PA to the tax authorities, from cultural to productive activities (manufacturing and industrial).

 

In this image, the Cloud PA migration path is understood as a programmatic evolution within which the realization of the National Strategic Pole (PSN) also falls as a goal.

 

Cloud PA model: what are the elements of the strategy?

 

The transformation path, with a view to measurable improvement in relation to saving economic resources and time, consists of 3 elements, all focused on the implementation of the best Cloud PA model possible:

• Cloud-First principle: represents the North in the compass of new projects to be implemented or new services to be launched in line with the Cloud PA model.
• Cloud Enablement strategy: guides the migration of existing applications and infrastructures or those to be created according to the Cloud PA model.
• Competence centers: these are communities of experts, managers, and technicians who share information, propose solutions and make their skills available to propose standards in terms of regulation, reliability, and automation of procedures and processes.

 

The Cloud First paradigm shift in the Cloud Enablement Program

 

The Cloud paradigm is what permeates the Cloud First Principle. What does it mean? It means that Public Administrations when defining a new project or implementing a service must, as a matter of priority, adopt the cloud model.

The Cloud PA model envisages resorting, before any other technological option, to SaaS services, or Software-as-a-Service: a cloud computing service that offers both the application and the platforms and IT infrastructures that support it. .

Cloud-First for Public Administrations, therefore, includes the strategic obligation to use cloud technology, primarily in SaaS form, without however excluding any type of cloud computing service, such as IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) and / o PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service).

To take full advantage of the use of the Cloud, the PA cloud migration strategy requires administrations to first evaluate the SaaS services present in the Cloud Marketplace that meet the needs. Only if these needs are not met, or if other factors of necessity/opportunity arise, can they consider the PaaS solutions and ultimately also the IaaS ones.

ICT solutions and services that fall into the PaaS and IaaS types, as mentioned, are subordinated to SaaS services (always a priority). In any case, if the PAs intend to carry out an innovative project, intended for citizens or businesses, which require different types of cloud computing, they can do so.

Technical Glossary: ​​“as-a-Service” is a term that generally indicates a solution managed, to a greater or lesser extent, by an external provider on behalf and for the benefit of the user of cloud computing services.

Cloud Enablement Program: How Does the Framework Work?

 

AgID and the Digital Transformation team took charge of defining the Cloud PA model, which is the reference point of the evolutionary strategy underlying the final goal of cloud migration of existing IT programs and infrastructures.

Once the Cloud Enablement Program has been defined at a national level, consisting in turn of specific projects that aim to achieve results from a cloud PA migration perspective, it is appropriate to try to understand how the Cloud Enablement framework works.

The work environment, consisting of methodologies, tools, and operational resources, is what allows the strategy of the Cloud Enablement Program to become feasible and measurable. This framework is based on two main elements, a control unit, and various execution units, which I will deepen in the next chapters.

 

Control unit of the Cloud Enablement Program

 

The control unit is made up of a team of professional and managerial figures, who specialized in enabling and migrating to the cloud. These professionals, together with AgID, the Digital Team, and the Competence Centers, are the governance of the entire project.

The task of the control unit of the Cloud Enablement Program is to manage and monitor the entire work framework, through the following activities:

• Define the methodologies: these are the documents adopted in the working framework for delivery, quality control, and monitoring.
• Develop and select tools: the control unit manages the work tools used in the framework, developing and selecting them, as well as supporting the execution units in their correct use.
• Update the program: program management is the responsibility of the control unit which therefore deals with the coordination of projects within the Cloud Enablement program, as well as the coordination of the execution units scattered throughout the territory. Based on the feedback from the latter (execution unit), the control unit updates the program.
• Quality control: checking the quality of deliveries of individual projects relating to the Cloud Enablement Program is the task of the control unit, which implements these checks through specific tools, such as tests and surveys, in order to ensure that what has been released meets the quality parameters required. by the methodology adopted.
• Monitoring activities: the activities managed by the control unit also include monitoring ones. This monitoring takes into account the expected results and parameters (KPIs).

 

 

KPI Cloud Enablement Program

 

I have already addressed the question “What are KPIs?” in terms of Product Management. I take this opportunity with this article to talk about key performance indicators in IT processes. In particular, I dwell on what could be the outcome measures to be used to certify progress towards cloud PA enablement.

The monitoring activity carried out by the control unit will be implemented through the development of an application that on the one hand enables the single PA and the single execution unit to verify each migration project and on the other hand is able to provide a broad-spectrum view of the progress of the program in its entirety.

But what are the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that can be used as parameters to verify the expected results (deliverables)? Preliminarily, I make a distinction between the result indicators, which measure the outcome of the Cloud Enablement Program on the technological applications/processes of the PA, and the impact indicators, which indicate the impact of the entire cloud enablement program on both ‘operation than on expenditure. Then here is an example of a KPI that can be used for this purpose.

Cloud Enablement Program outcome KPI examples

• Number (%) of identifiable and selectable services for cloud PA migration
• Percentage of completion of the cloud migration of the above services
• Quality of migrated services expressed as performance

Cloud Enablement Program impact KPI examples

• Cost savings (%) on infrastructures (e.g. data centers)
• Savings (%) on the budget for investments in innovative projects
• Qualitative improvement of PA operating activities

 

Cloud Enablement Execution Unit

 

In the Cloud Enablement framework, the execution units, more than one unlike the single control unit, each take care of the design/execution of a single cloud PA migration project. This means that it is their responsibility to deliver on time, carrying out consultancy activities in the field aimed at implementing the enabling process of cloud services.

To implement this mission, the execution units perform the following tasks:

1. Preliminary assessment = initial assessment of the infrastructures and applications used by the PA. It serves to highlight any critical issues and possible interdependencies. At the end of the preliminary assessment phase, you will have a catalog of the infrastructures to be decommissioned, as well as the applications selected for migration to the cloud PA with an in-depth analysis of possible problems encountered during the migration phase.
2. Cloud migration process design = the execution units identify the cloud architectures, the technical solutions, and the timing of implementation of the migration plan. This is a crucial step during which a detailed work program is produced, which will be implemented in the next phase.
3. Execution of cloud migration = corresponds to the operational part of the entire program and consists of the execution of the migration plan described in the previous point and implemented with the support of the control unit. For the implementation, the operational methodologies of the execution units are followed and an operational center for command and control of migration is established, within which there are also members of the PA involved. When this phase ends, the PA in question has the new IT services in the cloud environment.
4. Security check = the security review concerns both the application and the infrastructure and is carried out by the execution units with the support of third parties. External intervention is used to improve risk analysis. The safety review is a necessary condition to consider the execution phase positively concluded and provides for the application of the minimum security measures, issued by AgID, for the PA.
5. Retrospective and post-migration support = once the implementation phase is complete, each execution unit produces a report to allow the control unit to carry out an analysis of what has been done and the methods of the work process. In this way, we try to bring out any problems, more or less specific, so as to ‘learn the lesson’. The lesson learned is consolidated into common knowledge by the control unit.
6. Training and consultancy = the members of the execution units, through specialized training sessions, transmit knowledge on the issues and cloud services (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) to the representatives of the PA.
7. Project Management = the execution units together with the Public Administrations involved are responsible not only for the execution but also for the continued management of the Cloud Enablement project.

 

Cloud Enablement and Competence Centers

 

I close this in-depth article on the Cloud Enablement Program by talking about the third strategic element: the identification and implementation of specific competence centers in the local area. It is up to these units, at the end of the cloud transformation/migration process, to take on the burden of training, management of updating activities, and optimization of cloud resources.

With the support of AgID, the competence centers aim to consolidate theoretical knowledge and practical experience regarding the management of cloud PA services. They can also act as aggregators and administer cloud services on behalf of other Public Administrations.

For these reasons, the centers of expertise play a key role within the cloud PA model and, in general, in the digital transformation process of the Public Administration.