Cloud Strategy - Freedom of information

1. Do you have a cloud strategy? (Please provide a link to the strategy)

A) Yes

B) No

(A) Yes. Devon County Council publicly publishes its Digital and Technology Strategy. However, the current Digital & Technology Service Strategy 2021 – 2024 is currently being updated therefore, refer to Digital and Technology Strategy 2021– 2024

2. When was the cloud strategy defined?

The Devon County Council Digital & Technology Service Strategy was refreshed during 2020 and publicly published 2021, see above answer.

3. If yes, what is the focus of your cloud strategy?
A) All in on public cloud (no private cloud or on-premise infrastructure)
B) Cloud First (new services in public cloud with some on premises infrastructure or private cloud)
C) Hybrid cloud (some combination of one or more public clouds, private cloud and on-premises)
D) Private cloud (no public cloud)

(B) Cloud First (new services in public cloud with some on premises infrastructure or private cloud)

4. What public cloud(s) do you use?
A) AWS
B) Alibaba Cloud
C) Azure
D) Google Cloud Platform
E) Oracle Cloud
F) UK Cloud

Devon County Council does not hold this information in a manner that is capable of being easily analysed. Due to the nature of the Council’s infrastructure it would require an analyst to collate data from a variety of sources including the Council’s on-premise and external services to collate these figures. We estimate that it would take greater than the 18 hours that the Council is obliged to spend answering a freedom of information request to provide a response to this question. As such, we consider that Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 applies.

5. What percentage of your applications and/or workloads is on premise?
A) 0%
B) 10% – 25%
C) 25% – 50%
D) 50% – 75%
E) 100%

In the interest of providing advice and assistance, the Council is prepared to provide an estimate of the percentage. This estimate is “C) 25% – 50%”.

6. What percentage of your applications and/or workloads is in the public cloud?
A) 0%
B) 10% – 25%
C) 25% – 50%
D) 50% – 75%
E) 100%

In the interest of providing advice and assistance, the Council is prepared to provide an estimate of the percentage. This estimate is “C) 25% – 50%”.

7. What percentage of your data is on premise?
A) 0%
B) 10% – 25%
C) 25% – 50%
D) 50% – 75%
E) 100%

In the interest of providing advice and assistance, the Council is prepared to provide an estimate of the percentage. This estimate is “D) 50% – 75%”.

8. What percentage of your data is in the public cloud?
A) 0%
B) 10% – 25%
C) 25% – 50%
D) 50% – 75%
E) 100%

In the interest of providing advice and assistance, the Council is prepared to provide an estimate of the percentage. This estimate is “C) 25% – 50%”.

9. What percentage of your infrastructure is legacy?
A) 0%
B) 10% – 25%
C) 25% – 50%
D) 50% – 75%
E) 100%

In the interest of providing advice and assistance, the Council is prepared to provide an estimate of the percentage. This estimate is “C) 25% – 50%”.

10. Do you have third-party services or solutions on premise that are not cloud-ready or fit for cloud migration?

A) Yes
B) No

(A) Yes

11. What workloads or functions have you moved to the cloud? (Multiple answers. Please specify other if not listed)

A) Office productivity (e.g. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace)
B) Citizen-facing digital services (e.g. GOV.UK)
C) Back-office applications (e.g. transaction processing)
D) Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, cognitive services
E) Software development/DevOps
F) Corporate functions (e.g. HR, Finance, CRM)
G) Intranet
H) Public website
I) Backup, business continuity and disaster recovery
J) Other

A) Office productivity (e.g. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace)

B) Citizen-facing digital services (e.g. GOV.UK)

E) Software development/DevOps

F) Corporate functions (e.g. HR, Finance, CRM)

G) Intranet

H) Public website

I) Backup, business continuity and disaster recovery

12. What challenges did you face when moving to the public cloud? (Multiple answers. Please specify other if not listed)

A) Migrating certain applications
B) Legacy infrastructure
C) Different refresh cycles
D) Difficulty proving cost illustrations
E) Funding paths (Capex/Opex)
F) Data gravity
G) Data Classification
H) Licensing concerns
I) Data privacy concerns
J) Offshoring & data residency
K) Lack of in-house skills
L) Vendor lock-in/ Egress cost prohibitive
M) Other

A) Migrating certain applications

B) Legacy infrastructure

C) Different refresh cycles

D) Difficulty proving cost illustrations

F) Data gravity

H) Licensing concerns

I) Data privacy concerns

J) Offshoring & data residency

L) Vendor lock-in/ Egress cost prohibitive

13. What percentage of your infrastructure do you plan to be public cloud based in 12 months’ time?

F) 0%
G) 10% – 25%
H) 25% – 50%
I) 50% – 75%
J) 100%

14. What percentage of your infrastructure do you plan to be public cloud based in three years’ time?
A) 0%
B) 10% – 25%
C) 25% – 50%
D) 50% – 75%
E) 100%

15. How much has your organisation spent on public cloud since the Government’s G-Cloud or ‘cloud-first’ policy was introduced in 2012?

Devon County Council does not hold this specific information and to extract this information from the overall budget would require a lengthy review of the budget information which would take longer than 18 hours. This is more than the appropriate limit and, therefore, pursuant to s.12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we are therefore not obliged to provide this information. If you can refine your request, to focus on a specific area, we may be able to assist.

16. How much has your organisation spent on on-premise infrastructure since the Government’s G-Cloud or ‘cloud-first’ policy was introduced in 2012?

17. How much has your organisation spent on cloud/infrastructure consultancy services in FY 20-21?

18. How much was spent on public cloud data egress charges in FY 20-21?

Details of previous responses found on the Council’s publication scheme may be helpful to you Operational IT – services, budget, and contacts