40 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 The second is that Cloud has also become the preferred destination for analytics. The customer experience today is a function of AI and Analytics. It’s only natural that Cloud becomes the preferred destination and architecture for gaming companies as well. To hear the full discussion from this segment of the program, visit IGT.com/ cloudreplay. How is Cloud Being Adopted by Governments? The Players Project event also welcomed Doug Robinson, Executive Director, National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) and J.R. Sloan, Chief Information Officer, State of Arizona, and Chair of NASCIO’s StateRAMP, an organization created to assist states by assessing third-party Cloud providers to ensure they meet regulatory compliance and maintain published cybersecurity policies (see sidebar). Discussing how much Cloud-related activity is underway at the state and federal level, Robinson noted that NASCIOmember are responsible for services to tens of millions of citizens for everything from driver’s licenses to tax refunds. While Cloud is becoming ubiquitous in the private sector, public bodies have a very different set of demands and expectations, not to mention a higher level of public scrutiny. Nevertheless, consumers are now accustomed to getting goods and services on demand, either physically or virtually, and the public will expect the same from government services. Doug Robinson: States are slightly behind the private sector for a variety of reasons, although Cloud has been on our radar since 2009 and continues to be in CIOs' Top 10 priorities for states. States are spending a little over $60 billion this year on information technology, and Cloud is the major force of change for the future of state government services. Some states have several dozen Cloud service providers. Right now, we estimate that about 20% of state government’s workload is in the Cloud – which seems nominal, but if you look at the size of the workload in state governments, it’s dramatic, complex, and very different from the private sector. The use of Cloud is diverse – from delivering healthcare services such as Covid-tracking, vaccine registration and scheduling, to health and human services, criminal justice, and core or foundational applications like budget, finance, and human capital management. With many of the commercial platforms now making state-government specific Cloud offerings, we’re seeing states take the jump to move those things that for four decades have been on-premise services. For states, I think the driving factor in adopting Cloud is the shift from the owner-operator model. States’ model for the past five decades is changing. They’re looking for options where they’re not investing capital in owning boxes and wires but looking to do that [via managed services with] a private firm. J.R. Sloan: To me, the key driver for Cloud adoption across the board is business value, delivering services within the organization and to constituents more efficiently and at the right scale. Doug Robinson: Based on a new study that NASCIO just released with Accenture, the key phrase is modern. Every state CIO and their business partners want to be perceived as a modern organization. Cloud technology moves states into more of an opportunity to transform their businesses processes. To hear the full discussion on Cloud Adoption by Government Agencies, visit IGT.com/ cloudreplay. StateRAMP: A Resource to Help States Assess Cloud Vendors for Security Compliance “NASCIO’s StateRAMP organization is focused on helping U.S. state and local governments achieve regulatory compliance and assure that the data of citizens going into Cloud environments receives the proper care and protection,” said J.R. Sloan, Chief Information Officer, State of Arizona and Chair of StateRAMP. “U.S. states have commonality in terms of regulatory compliance. Rather than taking 50 different approaches to ensure data privacy, StateRAMP provides some efficiencies and economies of scale to assess vendors and security compliance. It also helps the vendor community avoid the same review process multiple times.” Importantly, StateRAMP includes the key element of continuous monitoring: ongoing review to ensure Cloud environments remain compliant with the security controls that were stated and designed. For more information, visit Stateramp.org Lottery participants engaged in live polling (top) throughout the event, offering additional perspective on the topics discussed by guest speakers (bottom).
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