Stack strategically: Architecting a better future

Business strategies and technology strategies have now converged even sooner than expected.

While technology augmented parts of government operations, few organizations approached their technology and business strategies as one. Now, all of that is changing. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, public service organizations across the globe made rapid digital transformations, accelerating their journeys to the future.

Government strategies cannot be achieved without supporting technology strategies. Thus, there can be no leadership without technology leadership. The opportunity is to tailor every layer of technology architecture to serve citizens with a truly differentiated approach.

Most government enterprises are weighed down by the technical debt of outdated technology. Instead, they need to build technical wealth – establishing a clear path away from outdated systems and developing an adaptive, reusable approach to technology.

What’s more, public service enterprises have more technology choices to make than ever before. Each layer of the stack – from cloud deployments, types of AI models and a wide range of edge devices to the design or even basic physics of hardware and computation – is expanding into new dimensions. Taking advantage of this choice is easier than ever thanks to an abundance of “as-a-service” solutions from hyperscalers, improvement in technology standards and growing cloud foundation throughout the enterprise.

In some regions, there remain unanswered questions about how to design and implement government-owned “sovereign clouds” – an obstacle that continues to hold up broad use of public cloud services. Yet it’s becoming clear that the question isn’t “if” but “how” agencies can access the new choices without sacrificing digital sovereignty and data privacy.

The most dynamic, sustainable and impactful architectures will likely be the ones that enable governments to tap into the full spectrum of technology capabilities available today, building unique solutions for current markets while maintaining a focus on reusability, repurposing and the evolving needs of constituents and communities.

These rapid transformations and the sudden influx of new technologies have ignited a new era of public service – one where architecture matters more than ever, and better outcomes start in technology stacks.