A 10% increase in cloud adoption by the Irish public sector could produce economic benefits of €473 million annually, a new report from Technology Ireland has said. The Sky is The Limit report also found that through greater cloud usage, the public sector would reduce its ICT energy usage by 80%.
Produced by the leading international consultancy Frontier Economics, the report assessed the benefits of increased cloud computing use by the Irish public sector. It also identified institutional and policy hurdles currently preventing Irish public sector bodies from availing of the technology.
It found that cloud use would significantly strengthen public sector cybersecurity defences. For example, it highlighted that the HSE’s cloud-based systems were those least affected by the 2021 cyberattack.
Further it said the public sector would reduce its ICT energy usage by 80%, decrease emissions and enhance sustainability through greater cloud usage, and that countries such as Canada, Australia, Germany, the UK, Greece and Poland are ahead of Ireland in terms of their approach to public sector cloud use.
The report then made several recommendations that, if implemented, could accelerate cloud adoption by the Irish public sector.
It said the development of an effective and fit-for-purpose procurement framework was needed to enable Irish public sector bodies to properly access cloud services and the benefits they provide, and that the adoption of a clear top-down cloud-first policy would help drive cloud usage across the public sector ecosystem.
It also said advance planning by public sector bodies was required to enable the most seamless transition possible to the cloud and that the active involvement of senior decision makers in the Irish public sector was necessary throughout.
Technology Ireland director Una Fitzpatrick said: “Much has been written and said about the undisputed power of the cloud to drive business and enterprise growth. But its capacity to transform public services and deliver major benefits for Irish public sector bodies and people in Ireland, has largely been overlooked. That is why this report is so valuable – it highlights clearly what the consequences of the Irish public sector’s low uptake of the technology.
“Moving to the cloud, as Frontier Economics’ research demonstrates, would have deep cybersecurity, sustainability, and economic advantages, as well as improving the fundamental quality of public services. It should therefore be a no-brainer for Government.”
Fitzpatrick continued: “Ireland is already home to all of the world’s leading cloud computing firms, who have invested massively here in terms of both infrastructure and people-power. Despite this cutting-edge technology on our doorstep, the public sector has been slow to harness it. As the report shows, there is now an opportunity to right that wrong and reap the benefits of digitalisation in the same way the private sector in Ireland and the public sectors in countries with whom Ireland often benchmarks itself against, including the UK, Canada, and Australia.”
Federico Cilauro of Frontier Economics said: “The evidence of the benefits that would be produced by greater public sector cloud usage in Ireland is strong. Our analysis of other jurisdictions shows that cloud adoption by public bodies delivers a myriad of advantages for end-users. There are especially strong cybersecurity and sustainability benefits to be achieved through heightened Irish public sector cloud use. As our research determines, however, a series of barriers are currently preventing the Irish public sector from making use of the technology. We have therefore developed recommendations – based on the Irish context but drawing from international precedent and experience – that could remove those same barriers and enable its public sector to transition more rapidly to the cloud.”
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