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Six questions every government executive should ask about cloud computing Government executives need to evaluate what cloud computing can do for their departments. Asking the right questions is the place to start. By Gwil Davies, Andrew Greenway, Jeanne G. Harris and Allan E. Alter

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Six questions every government executive should ask about cloud computing Government executives need to evaluate what cloud computing can do for their departments. Asking the right questions is the place to start.

By Gwil Davies, Andrew Greenway, Jeanne G. Harris and Allan E. Alter

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No business or government leader today can ignore cloud computing.1 Many global organizations – including Citigroup and Starbucks – are already using it to analyze data, provide applications to employees and run special projects.2 Media giants Time Warner and Disney are using cloud computing to reengineer their processes for distributing digital content.3 And more cloud services will soon be available, as established IT and telecom providers such as Microsoft, IBM, Accenture, Fujitsu, KDDI, China Mobile and SingTel join cloud pioneers like Google, Amazon and Salesforce.com.4

But even with the optimism that surrounds the potential of cloud computing, its entry into both commercial and government sectors generates difficult questions. While it promises to deliver a wide and powerful range of capabilities, its potential uses are exceptionally broad and difficult to foretell. Further, it will affect how computing strategies are developed and managed, how information is controlled, and how the economics of business technology are applied. The technology’s novelty and the media hype make it even harder to evaluate its potential, costs and risks. With so many issues to explore, decision makers can easily succumb to “analysis paralysis” or the temptation to leave all decisions to the IT department.

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When compared to the commercial sector, government leaders face different challenges and will need to scrutinize their decisions around cloud looking through a different lens. They need to consider the following:

1. Serving the public: Citizens are putting more demands on their governments, not only in regard to how services are provided, but in how efficiently government operations are run.

2. Politics: It may not be politically acceptable to have government data and processing performed outside the country.

3. Tough standards: Given the nature of some government operations, security, data privacy and reliability concerns may impose even tougher restrictions on how much flexibility is feasible when considering access, storage and processing “in the cloud.”

4. Organizational issues: Management will need to overcome any cultural barriers or resistance to sharing services and IT across government.

5. Procurement processes: Designed to maintain fair competition between suppliers, procurement policies may reduce flexibility for governments to use cloud services.

As with most technologies, the significance of cloud computing will differ widely from industry to industry. Accenture has identified six key questions government decision makers should ask about this still-new phenomenon. By focusing on these questions, government executives can narrow their inquiries and start to identify opportunities and risks that will impact their own organizations.

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At its most basic level, cloud computing allows users—from citizens to departmental employees to IT staff —to obtain computing capabilities through the Internet, regardless of their physical location. Computing clouds are in essence online, supersized data centers containing tens of thousands of servers hosting web applications. Cloud services from raw infrastructure to complete business processes can be purchased through web interfaces and turned on and off as they are needed.

Characteristics of cloud services include:

• Little or no capital investment

• Variable pricing based on consumption; buyers "pay per use"

• Rapid acquisition and deployment

• Lower ongoing operating costs

For businesspeople, cloud computing can seem too good to be true: plenty of computing power, no expensive IT infrastructure. Cloud computing lets organizations bypass the expense and lead time of buying, installing, operating, maintaining and upgrading the networks and computers found in data centers. Instead of licensing software, users tap into a service when it’s needed for as long as it’s needed. All that is required is a broadband Internet connection and a mobile device or personal computer with a browser to access and activate the cloud service. As with most utilities, organizations pay by the kind and amount of services used, plus any additional fees.

Once service has been initiated, the data processing is done on the back end in the remote data centers. Clouds are designed so that processing power can be added simply by attaching more servers; everything is virtualized so that software can be run on any available server with excess capacity. And because everything is hosted in the cloud, users can run processes, build applications and more without loading each and every tool onto their computers.

The basic technologies are well established and can be duplicated by any organization. That makes it possible for governments to build private clouds, restricted infrastructure that uses cloud computing technologies but is only shared by approved organizations. Private clouds can be used within single governments or possibly be shared by both local and central government departments. Clouds the size of those run by Microsoft, Amazon and Google require additional technologies so they can support many millions of users around the world without becoming sluggish.5

Given the specific challenges that governments face around keeping data and processing in country and security and data privacy restrictions, private clouds are likely to play a key role in the evolution of cloud computing for government organizations.

This description barely touches the underlying complexities. But for business and government departmental leaders, it gets at the crucial point: with cloud computing the provision of IT power becomes someone else’s problem.

1. What is cloud computing, and how does it work?

The UK government plans to create the G-Cloud, a government-wide cloud computing network intended to make the government IT marketplace more cost-effective, flexible and competitive. It would also encourage the adoption of higher levels of standardization and sharing of IT services across departments.

“This would both allow Government to benefit from the core attributes of Cloud Computing e.g. enhanced user experience, flexible pricing, elastic scaling, rapid provisioning, advanced virtualization while also maintaining the appropriate levels of security, accountability and control required for most Government systems, and lead to substantial savings in costs.” 6

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The three top benefits of cloud computing talked about today are cost, flexibility and speed to market. However forward looking governments are thinking about how cloud technologies will change the face of government operations (see question 5).

CostLow prices on cloud services are a big part of their allure. For example, a large pharmaceutical company paid Amazon Web Services only $89 to analyze data on a drug under development — a job that would have required its researchers to buy 25 servers to perform in-house.7 Add the savings from eliminating the cost of servers, software licenses, maintenance fees, data center space, electricity and IT labor, and the benefits of replacing a large up-front capital expense with a low, pay-for-use operating expense, and the financial appeal of cloud computing is obvious.

FlexibilityClouds offer extraordinarily flexible resources because of their technical design. Clouds can be summoned quickly when needed, grow by assigning more servers to a job, then shrink or disappear when no longer needed. That makes clouds well suited for sporadic, seasonal or temporary work, for finishing tasks at lightning speed and processing vast amounts of data, and for software development and testing projects. Clouds can also supplement conventional systems when demand for computing exceeds supply. And since they are an operational expense, cloud services can often bypass the capital-expense approval process, and thus be quicker to procure than conventional systems. In the pharmaceutical company’s case, using clouds shaved three months off the IT budget and approval process, resulting in faster time to market and $1 billion in opportunity costs avoided.

SpeedThe barrier to entry for providing an innovative IT service has never been lower. Cloud empowers any programmer to create a software service using free or low-cost development tools and quickly make it available to all, potentially making government departments much more agile and responsive. Clouds are also a fast and easy way for organizations to impose a standard set of applications or processes. They only need pay for a cloud service and then require employees to go online and use it. For those applications that require a great deal of IT infrastructure (servers and storage), there is no need for the traditional lead time to procure, deliver, and install the hardware which could be weeks or months.

2. What benefits can cloud bring to my government organization?

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Government departmental leaders should begin by looking for specific benefits for their own organization – ways to reduce costs, improve processes and more. They should also investigate when clouds do not make sense. For example, migrating a complex legacy system would require a costly redesign to operate on a cloud, and projects requiring a guaranteed response time should be avoided, since guarantees are risky when data has to run over the Internet.8

Executives are likely to find the greatest benefit by envisioning new processes, applications, services and offerings that had been too difficult or expensive for the organization to previously offer.

But given the scale and diversity of IT environments across local and central governments and the expense to build and maintain them, it is our view that private clouds are likely to play a key role in the evolution of cloud computing for governments. Adopting a cloud computing strategy that seamlessly integrates public and private cloud capabilities with legacy IT as part of the overall IT strategy could bring additional significant benefits and greater opportunities for success. Governments need to consider which applications are suitable to run in the public cloud (e.g. non-sensitive data applications and development and test work), and which require a private cloud solution to address with the challenges listed above. In short, this hybrid approach would meet requirements for in-country processing

and data privacy/security as well as lower costs, and improve services and efficiency by:

1. Avoiding the fragmentation and dilution of efforts that hinder efficiency, reliability, data privacy and security across governmental departments.

2. Enabling new integrated customer-centric processes that are gaining importance in governmental services.

3. Supporting data-intensive processes such as data analytics which are increasingly being used by governments (e.g. to fight crime and discover fraudulent activities).

4. Sharing departmental peaks in data processing across the cloud to reduce overall capacity requirements and costs.

5. Standardizing new and current services for multiple groups, saving development and maintenance costs and speeding provision time (e.g. common applications required by local government departments or schools and universities).

6. Providing a platform that allows very quick development of new applications and services, ideal for short term needs.

7. Facilitating real time competition among service providers.

3. Given the industry-specific challenges, how can government executives come to a timely, focused and productive evaluation of cloud computing?

The US federal government recently launched Apps.gov, an online storefront for federal agencies to quickly purchase cloud-based IT services for productivity, collaboration, and efficiency. The government sees this as an innovation that not only can change how IT operates, but also save taxpayer dollars in the process.

“…Apps.gov is starting small – with the goal of rapidly scaling it up in size. Along the way, we will need to address various issues related to security, privacy, information management and procurement to expand our cloud computing services. Over time, as we work through these concerns and offer more services through Apps.gov, federal agencies will be able to get the capabilities they need to fulfill their missions at lower cost, faster, and ultimately, in a more sustainable manner.” 9

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Thailand’s private cloud aims to help small- and medium-sized government agencies with limited budgets to embrace e-government more quickly, without the need to access software-as-a-service via the Internet. The cloud will be managed by Thailand’s Government Information Technology Service (GITS) and is expected to go live next year.

The first application procured via the cloud will be government email: GITS Director Sak Segkhoonthod said: “There are currently about 30,000 e-mail accounts and we aim to reach 100,000 accounts next calendar year; and a booking service for governmental facilities. These applications are now digitised, but are deployed separately in each of more than 200 government departments. We will move these duplicated similar applications from the different servers into one server, to be shared and used by a group of government departments. It will considerably reduce costs.” 13

CIOs say they are finding real savings from cloud computing. Accenture estimates its own IT organization could save up to 50 percent of its hosting costs annually by transferring most of its applications to infrastructure clouds.10 Bechtel’s CIO benchmarked the company’s internal data center and storage against those of Google, Amazon and Salesforce.com, concluding he could greatly reduce his per unit costs by creating an internal cloud.11

But executives should not take most promises and projections of cloud savings at face value. The articles about companies that have saved money rarely explain how these savings were calculated. Several apparently rigorous analyses of cloud savings have been attacked as unrealistic.12 And while Accenture’s internal IT organization has moved internal applications to the cloud, it has not done so in several cases because the cost of hosting the system internally, in an optimized United States based data center or in one of its Indian facilities, is less than that of an external cloud service.

Government executives therefore need to look closely into the costs of cloud computing for their organizations. They should seek rigorous ROI case studies based on actual cloud usage, rather than estimates of anticipated savings. Hardware, after all, is a relatively small component of data center costs. They need to uncover the hidden management, transition, and usage costs that reveal themselves only when organizations start to work with the technology. They need to evaluate the pricing models of different kinds

of cloud services. And they need to work with the finance department to develop a consistent and acceptable approach to measuring the costs and return from clouds. Only then can they reliably estimate the savings.

In addition the following factors will be critical for governments to realize the greatest possible benefits:

• Adopting common standards that make sharing easier.

• Using standard, fit-for-purpose, service levels as much as possible, according to requirements of the specific application.

• Applying security and data privacy restrictions appropriately and, again, standardizing the number of different levels as much as possible.

• Overcoming any departmental ownership issues so as much government work can be moved to the shared cloud as possible.

• Taking care to maintain flexibility around procurement to avoid being locked into specific supplier arrangements.

4. Can I depend on clouds to save my organization money?

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The Japanese government has a plan to create the Kasumigaseki Cloud, a nation-wide cloud computing infrastructure that could eventually host all Japanese government IT systems. It is part of a larger government project designed to help spur economic recovery with the influx of new IT market revenue and new jobs. It is planned to be deployed in stages through 2015.

“Efforts will be made to efficiently develop and operate information systems with the aim of greatly reducing electronic government-related development and operating costs while increasing the pace of processing by integrating shared functions, increasing collaboration among systems, and providing secure and advanced governmental services." 14

In the commercial sector, companies that have built massive clouds are already transforming the nature of competition. Google’s advertising-supported search engine and tools and Amazon’s online retail operations are all made possible by the computing clouds created by those companies. Cloud-based consumer applications like Facebook and iPhone applets are driving innovation in unpredictable ways, and we may see governments making similar leaps that leverage cloud computing. For example:

1. There will be greater cross-governmental sharing which allows citizens to access everything they need from their government through a common portal (e.g. a change of address made once will update all government departments).

2. Government departments will develop applications to support their operations using pre-approved, cloud-based platforms, or will use preconfigured applications (that come with hardware, networking, security, and other services built in).

3. Data security will be provided at the appropriate levels through a government cloud. Local and central government departments will specify the sensitivity of the data and the cloud will automatically store it according to defined rules (in country, secure data center locations, strong authentication, etc.).

4. Cloud infrastructure services will be provided to governments through a competitive, real-time market for services (as with energy).

5. Government will have the IT power to use data analytic techniques to detect data errors and potential fraud quickly and easily.

Executives also need to consider cloud computing in a wider community context. Small- and medium-sized enterprises may use cloud computing to compensate for immature or incomplete IT infrastructure. Governments may also promote clouds as a low cost way to provide IT services to non-governmental organizations, community organizations or small start-up businesses.

Finally, executives should remember that clouds can promote cooperation as well as competition. An industry cloud, for example, provides a common back-office platform that enables information to be shared between hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, insurers, regulators and patients in the US health care system.

As with benefits, it is difficult to fully gauge all of the ways in which the cloud will change how governments will operate. Decision makers will need to perform a thorough assessment to understand how clouds can help them. In particular, strategists must investigate what new services should be pursued using cloud computing, while CIOs must track the evolution of the technology and the market for cloud services, to ensure that strategic ambitions do not outrun the capabilities of the technology. CIOs will also need to mature their systems management and operations tools and processes to seamlessly manage a heterogeneous traditional (non-cloud) and cloud environment, which needs to co-exist in the future.

5. How will clouds affect the way my organization operates in the future?

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Various surveys tell us that security and data privacy remain prime concerns for cloud implementers in the government and commercial sectors. For government organizations, the fear of their data being in the cloud is the single greatest hurdle that government leaders must overcome to build trust and gain the benefits from cloud computing. CIOs are concerned that their data could be stolen or compromised by hackers, mixed with data from their cloud providers’ other customers, or released by mistake. Any of the above could expose government organizations to public embarrassment, lawsuits as well as potentially compromising a country’s economy or defense.

Many governments today have very specific challenges in areas of security and data privacy. Their existing IT estates consist of highly fragmented landscapes of security and data privacy approaches and policies taken across different government departments. This in turn carries a lot of risk and cost. Using the move to cloud computing to drive more consistency and automation in security and data privacy may actually be a catalyst for driving greater security and reduced costs.

Governments need to adopt a very practical approach to thinking about security and data privacy in the cloud. Most governments tag data with different levels of sensitivity, from low level (published widely and no restrictions) to ultra secure (classified security information for top government leaders only). In the same way, governments will need to design their cloud to have similar and appropriate security built in

through a managed combination of both private and public clouds. So, for example, low level data and access may well be suitable to go onto a public cloud infrastructure service with simple password access, whereas ultra secure data may require dedicated secure servers housed in ultra secure, government data centers with strong authentication required for access. There will be several different levels of security in between. Building and managing a secure and flexible infrastructure cloud using a combination of private and public services will provide the key for governments to gain the enormous benefits that cloud computing can provide.

It is also important that as governments choose cloud service providers they include security and data privacy capabilities as a major part of the selection criteria. The key to understanding security in cloud computing is to realize that the technology is not new or untested. It represents the logical progression to outsourcing of commodity services to many of the same trusted IT providers that have been leaders in the field for years.

Some governments have already approved public cloud providers to handle highly sensitive information. For example the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has certified a number of services that use public cloud providers to send, manage, and store patients’ electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI), using encrypted communication, access, and storage security measures.

We recommend that governments take the following into account:

• Work with your provider to determine its attention to security. Make sure the provider can achieve parity or better levels of security than you have today.

• Remember that the security of the cloud should be equal to the most risky client that is serviced by the provider.

• Risk assessment is the key to cloud security. Require your cloud computing partner to provide you with its risk assessment and how it intends to mitigate any issues found.

• If the cloud provider does not have a seasoned client-facing CSO, CISO, or equivalent security role, be very careful. It is a sign that the provider doesn’t take security seriously enough.

• Schedule mandatory monthly discussions with the cloud provider’s top security person. This discussion should flow both ways with no hidden items.

• The cloud provider should have the ability to map its policy and procedures to any security mandate or security driven contractual obligation you face.

• Pay attention to your cloud provider’s adherence to secure coding practices.

6. What about assurance of security and data privacy?

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Cloud computing is too important a technology to leave entirely to technologists. While the work of migrating from conventional to cloud computing is likely to fall on the shoulders of the CIO, other government executives have important roles to play. To make sure an organization maximizes benefits and minimizes risks, executives must:

• Ask hard questions and demand data-based analyses regarding cost savings. Don’t assume automatic and substantive cost savings. Do an ROI analysis. Consider conversion and ongoing costs as well as savings. Don’t be intimidated by the jargon. Experiment or pilot on low-hanging fruit such as workgroup applications, or on a non-mission critical, non-integrated application. Then be ready to scale once you’ve proven the benefits are worth it.

• Establish a clear governance structure for cloud computing. Many organizations have rules and structures in place that govern how IT decisions are shared between departmental leaders and IT executives. Use them (and if they don’t exist, create them) to decide who inside and outside the IT organization should be engaged in decisions on cloud computing, and what decision-making rights and responsibilities they have.

• Keep cloud efforts on track.Make sure cloud computing receives the focused thinking, planning and follow-up it requires. Use the answers to these six questions to identify and address both immediate and longer-term business needs and opportunities that lend themselves to cloud computing, to develop a plan for using public and perhaps private clouds, and to gain the capabilities the plan requires. Make sure the organization senses and responds appropriately to the impact clouds are having on their operations.

• Set the standards for success: Provide the necessary oversight to the IT organization. Make sure goals and deliverables are well understood, and projects are well aligned with business needs. Clarify how the value from cloud computing is to be determined: which quantitative and qualitative benefits are sought? And consider what else constitutes success besides value achieved and projects completed: skills developed, partnerships established, and risks addressed.

• Provide the necessary support.Besides financial resources and technical talent, support other activities that will underpin the success of cloud initiatives. For example, organizations may benefit from a community of practice or a cloud program office to develop the skills and share the experiences of people engaged in cloud projects.

• Buy cautiously, appraise frequently. It’s too early to predict who the major cloud providers will be in a few years, what capabilities they will deliver, when they will deliver them, and how well. So when selecting cloud providers, carefully consider whether they have the potential to be a desirable partner in the future. Even after they are chosen, evaluate your partners on their financial stability, as well as their ability to improve functionality and service levels, to integrate data across different technology platforms and cloud services, and to deliver on their promises.

It will take time for government departments to transition to cloud computing. Executives are still grappling with its risks, possibilities, and the cost of writing off current IT investments. Still, a transition to a hybrid of cloud and conventional computing is underway. The capabilities and potential savings from clouds are too great to ignore. In addition, software developers and

venture capitalists will be drawn to this new market. The low development cost, short development cycle, and quick return on cloud services are irresistible. This means future IT advances and innovations are much more likely to be based on clouds than conventional computing. The critical issue isn’t whether cloud computing will become a fundamental technology in the next decade. It is how successfully companies will profit from the capabilities it offers.

Managing the new cloud capabilities with all the existing legacy systems in a way that is seamless to government departments and users will be critical to achieving the benefits and managing the risks.

Taking the first steps

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1. “What the Enterprise Needs to Know About Cloud Computing,” Accenture Technology Labs, October 2009;

“Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2010,” Gartner, Inc. press release, October 20, 2009; “2009年云计算中国论坛专题报道” (“Cloud Computing in 2009 Forum dossier”), Chinese Institute of Electronics Cloud Computing Experts Association, http://server.it168.com; “The Cloud Wars: $100+ billion at stake,” Merrill Lynch, May 7, 2008; Avenade 2009 Global Survey of Cloud Computing, http://www.avanade.com; Laurianne McLaughlin, “Cloud Computing Survey: IT Leaders See Big Promise, Have Big Security Questions,” CIO Magazine, October 21, 2008.

2. Eric Auchard, “Salesforce.com Signs Citigroup Deal,” Reuters.com, November 15, 2007; “Salesforce.com Powers Starbucks Campaign to Mobilize Americans in National Service,” Salesforce.com press release, January 21, 2009, http://www.salesforce.com; Ron Condon,

“The Opportunities and Risks of Cloud Computing Services,” SearchSecurity.co.uk, February 23, 2009.

3. Ethan Smith, “Disney Touts a Way to Ditch the DVD,” Wall Street Journal, October 21, 2009.

4. Ben Worthen and Justin Scheck, “Tech Giants Ramp Up Their Online Offerings,” Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2009; “Cloud Services/SaaS: What Telcos Are Doing,” IDC Technology Assessment, October 2009; “China Mobile Enters Sphere of Cloud Computing,” Interfax, November 17, 2009; Bernard Golden, “The State of Cloud Computing in Japan,” CIO.com, November 5, 2009; “SingTel to Help Establish Singapore as a Regional Cloud Computing Hub,” SingTel press release, July 14, 2009; Chris Preimesberger, “Fujitsu Launches Cloud Services in North America,” eWeek.com, December 8, 2009.

5. Luiz André Barroso and Urs Hölzle, The Datacenter as a Computer: An Introduction to the Design of Warehouse-Scale Machines (Morgan & Claypool Publishers, 2009).

6. Digital Britain: The Final Report; June 16, 2009, page 213, http:// www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/ broadcasting/6216.aspx.

7. Condon, ibid.

8. What the Enterprise Needs to Know About Cloud Computing.

9. Vivek Kundra, "Streaming at 1:00. In the Cloud," whitehouse.com blog, September 15, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Streaming-at-100-In-the-Cloud.

10. “Pressure Performance: 2009 IT Report,” Accenture CIO Organization, November 2009.

11. “CTO Roundtable: Cloud Computing,” Communications of the ACM, Volume 52, Number 8 (2009), Pages 50-56 http://queue.acm.org; Gray Hall, “Bechtel Harnesses the Cloud: Case Study of an Enterprise Cloud,” Cloudstoragestrategy.com.

12. “Cloud Coockoo Land Computing,” dotfuturemanifesto.blogspot.com; Andy Greenberg, “Deflating the Cloud,” Forbes.com, April 15, 2009.

13. Robin Hicks, "Thailand hatches plan for private cloud," futuregov.net, May 25, 2009, http://www.futuregov.net/articles/2009/may/25/thailand-plans-private-cloud-e-gov/.

14. Dave Rosenberg, "Supercloud looms for Japanese government, CNET, May 14, 2009, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10241081-62.html.

Reference

Copyright © 2010 Accenture All rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.

About AccentureAccenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 181,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$21.58 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2009. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About the Accenture Institute for High PerformanceThe Accenture Institute for High Performance creates strategic insights into key management issues and macroeconomic and political trends through original research and analysis. Its management researchers combine world-class reputations with Accenture’s extensive consulting, technology and outsourcing experience to conduct innovative research and analysis into how organizations become and remain high-performance businesses.

About the authorsGwil Davies is a member of Accenture’s Technology Consulting practice and has deep experience in designing and implementing complex IT Infrastructure solutions. He is based in London and leading much of our work to think through implications of cloud computing for our government clients.

[email protected]

Andrew Greenway leads Accenture’s Cloud Computing Program, and is based in London. He has extensive experience leading large IT organizations and major IT projects. He has experience as a senior marketing executive and as a supply chain management executive. He also has deep management consulting experience, with particular focus on helping clients improve business processes.

[email protected]

Jeanne G. Harris is an executive research fellow with the Accenture Institute for High Performance, and is based in Chicago. She is the co-author, with Thomas H. Davenport, of Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning (Harvard Business Press, 2007) and, with Davenport and Robert Morison, of Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results (Harvard Business Press, 2010).

[email protected]

Allan E. Alter is a research fellow with the Accenture Institute for High Performance, and is based in Boston. He was formerly an editor with such publications as CIO Magazine and CIO Insight.

[email protected]

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