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The Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) of a leading federal agency of the U.S. government is tasked with serving 20 lines of business within the organization, as well as some external federal agencies, with IT services, cybersecurity solutions, and centers of excellence for new technologies.
The majority of the organization’s IT infrastructure was hosted on-premise, with large data centers supporting a vast array of systems and applications. The OCIO believed business units would continue to increase their cloud adoption and cloud data management capability over time, and not all data centers would be needed. To determine this, OCIO needed support with conducting a study of their organization’s state of cloud readiness, priorities for cloud adoption and cloud migration, the suitability of various enterprise cloud data management solutions, and the best course of action for the organization.
The OCIO wanted to answer these important questions:
Analysis and Advisory Services
The OCIO was approached by one of its business units to purchase a leased data center. The OCIO’s preferred option was to shift away from managing data centers as part of its Data Center Optimization Initiative and reduce on-premise environments by investing in cloud modernization and enterprise cloud data management. Guidehouse supported the OCIO in determining the best course of action by conducting an objective study to analyze the financial implications of all viable options, providing support throughout the process by:
Guidehouse’s study determined that migrating high-value IT systems to the cloud was the most cost-effective option, saving the OCIO from the financial burden of purchasing a new data center.
Cloud Implementation Support
Guidehouse’s expertise extended beyond strategy, helping the OCIO with the implementation of cloud technology solutions, including large-scale projects like migrating mailboxes and deploying Office365. From development and testing to change management and user training, Guidehouse supported the entire project lifecycle while providing ongoing support, performance tuning, and maintenance through cloud transformation processes.
Determining the Correct Strategic Decision
Guidehouse’s analysis detailed five viable options for the organization. With objective data and tangible evidence, the OCIO used in-depth cost-benefit analysis to identify the best approach and advocate effectively for cloud/software modernization. Guidehouse’s strategic guidance and advisory services allowed the OCIO to overcome a daunting internal challenge and helped the office demonstrate the value of investing in modernization efforts to both leadership and the wider organization.
Unlocking Cost Savings Through Enterprise Cloud Solutions
Guidehouse identified potential savings of up to $20 million per year for the OCIO via the most cost-effective route to cloud modernization. While the organization had initially deemed the cloud strategy for certain complex applications too expensive, Guidehouse was able to deploy its extensive expertise to re-architect elements of the IT infrastructure to optimize application performance, remove unnecessary licenses, improve readiness for cloud data management solutions, and reduce the overall cost of cloud investment.
Delivering Cloud Modernization
With Guidehouse’s support, the OCIO is positioned to move from outdated systems to a modernized, cloud-based infrastructure. This transition has enabled:
Guidehouse’s support of a number of mission-critical applications has enabled the OCIO to drive greater performance, improve its operational agility, reduce IT costs, keep up with the pace of modern technology, gain competitive advantages, and deliver better services to both its internal and external customers.
Robert McNamara, Partner
Raquel Morgan, Director
Guidehouse is a global consultancy providing advisory, digital, and managed services to the commercial and public sectors. Purpose-built to serve the national security, financial services, healthcare, energy, and infrastructure industries, the firm collaborates with leaders to outwit complexity and achieve transformational changes that meaningfully shape the future.