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By Andrea Di Maio, vice president and distinguished analyst
Over the past two and a half years, the U.S. federal government has been very active on the cloud computing front and is rightly perceived as a leader in this space.
Governments worldwide have been following developments in Washington, D.C., as a source of inspiration, and some of the whole-of-government cloud strategies — for example, in countries like the U.K. or Australia — have been heavily influenced by developments in the U.S.
Cloud computing remains an important trend and, in the long run, will have a transformational impact on the way government organisations access and leverage IT. However, the path to the cloud is definitely slower and more tortuous than many wish to think.
Government IT organisations need to build up strengths in cloud security and related disciplines to better leverage public cloud opportunities, and they should aggressively pursue the use of public cloud computing for open data, portals and other similar uses.
This report is based on independent technology advisory research from Gartner, Inc. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for IT leaders to make the right decisions every day.