Originally published Cloud Exchange 2025: IDC Government Insights’ Max Claps on cloud gains, AI and continuing challenges on by https://federalnewsnetwork.com/cloud-computing/2025/06/cloud-exchange-2025-idc-government-insights-max-claps-on-cloud-gains-ai-and-continuing-challenges/ at Federal News Network
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Federal agencies are deepening their reliance on cloud computing, moving beyond initial adoption to leverage automation, multicloud orchestration and artificial intelligence integration for enhanced operational efficiency and security.
This evolution, however, brings new complexities in managing diverse environments and optimizing costs, said Max Claps, research director for worldwide national government platforms and technologies at IDC Government Insights.
Even so, Claps noted the significant progress since cloud computing’s inception.
“We’ve come a long way. The first few years were about trying and testing, and then FedRAMP came to reassure all of the users that there was a framework to use the appropriate tools and put in place the appropriate guardrails,” Claps said during Federal News Network’s Cloud Exchange 2025. Now, governments globally are using cloud services across various applications, with AI increasingly driving adoption due to its native cloud features.
Key government cloud trends in 2025
Claps highlighted the central role of automation. “Because of the new potential capabilities brought by AI and other automation tools, the ability to drive more operational efficiency when doing provisioning, when securing the cloud, when monitoring and observing the performance of cloud environments is really helpful for government entities that cannot always afford the latest and greatest competencies,” he said.
Multicloud orchestration has also become a necessity as agencies often end up with heterogeneous environments, whether by strategic design or organic growth. This allows for optimization, identifying the most appropriate cloud environment for each workload and use case, and facilitating movement of data across on-premise environments as well as private and public clouds.
Agency cloud challenges and lessons learned
Agencies frequently seek assistance not just with technology but with adapting their operating models and building organizational capacity to manage and realize cloud value.
Technical questions often revolve around moving from simple lift-and-shift migrations to leveraging fully serverless architectures. This requires a deep understanding of vendor-specific capabilities and the use of sandbox environments for testing, Claps said. Securing cloud posture, beyond just FedRAMP compliance, also remains a critical area of focus.
Case studies from agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and NASA highlight key lessons learned. EPA’s transition of its Central Data Exchange to the cloud, for instance, demonstrated the importance of continuously evolving architectural designs and sunsetting on-premise capabilities to reduce licensing and integration costs, Claps said.
Both EPA and NASA proved the cloud’s ability to drive agility and faster time to market, allowing for rapid configuration and decomposition of systems, he added.
Weighing costs and benefits of cloud use
Accurate cost estimation of cloud migration and use can be challenging because benefits may not appear immediately.
Claps recommended implementing financial operations, or FinOps, tools with key performance indicators for both financial and “green ops” metrics, along with maintaining strict discipline in inventorying existing assets and measuring use. He cited a practical example of a government chief information officer who saved costs by simply switching off nonessential environments during weekends.
Cloud also necessitates a shift in operating models, moving from highly verticalized IT skills to broader competencies in FinOps, contract management and strategic engagement with sourcing partners. This transition encourages a “digital first” mindset, with many experienced government employees embracing new roles as advisors to mission areas, Claps said.
He recommended that agencies cultivate four key in-house skills:
- FinOps to manage and control costs
- Enterprise architecture to align cloud use with business needs
- Sourcing expertise to evaluate cloud offerings
- Robust cloud security knowledge to keep data secure
Taking a strategic perspective to cloud use in government
For long-term cloud operations, managing complexity through integration and orchestration is paramount given the heterogeneous nature of current environments. This extends to integrating data and applications across different environments and ensuring external stakeholders, like researchers who regularly access NASA data, can interact seamlessly with cloud-based systems.
AI integration is increasingly relevant as well. Although AI has long been used for automating cloud management and predicting security risks, generative AI and AI agents are now driving significant interest at the mission level.
Claps views technology, including AI, primarily as a lever to improve operational efficiency and then to reduce IT costs. But he cautioned that the variety of AI deployment models and language models could lead to a “wild west of cost,” making FinOps even more crucial.
He advised agencies to take a comprehensive, long-range perspective so they can keep pace with new technologies while avoiding mere hype. “You’ve got to have your hands in the now and your eyes on the future.”
Discover more articles and videos now on our Cloud Exchange 2025 event page.
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Originally published Cloud Exchange 2025: IDC Government Insights’ Max Claps on cloud gains, AI and continuing challenges on by https://federalnewsnetwork.com/cloud-computing/2025/06/cloud-exchange-2025-idc-government-insights-max-claps-on-cloud-gains-ai-and-continuing-challenges/ at Federal News Network
Originally published Federal News Network
