Government organizations are starting to realize that no single cloud can meet their wide range of needs. According to the Nutanix 2022 Enterprise Cloud Index1, 75% of public sector organizations agree that multicloud is ideal, and more public sector organizations than average have adopted multicloud as a primary IT operating model (outpacing the global average). Furthermore, global public sector multicloud adoption is expected to nearly double from 39% to 67% in the next three years.

Some leaders worry about the perceived complexity of multicloud —as well as cost, security, and overall compliance requirements. But the right strategy, tools, and partners can help alleviate these concerns and help create a path to new levels of efficiency, service delivery effectiveness, and security.

Multicloud math: Greater return at lower risk

Modern financial theory asserts that a diversified portfolio is an effective hedge that yields greater return at lower risk. Similarly, multicloud, a diversified portfolio of clouds, has the potential to yield a stronger return on IT investment, provide a lower risk, and deliver greater overall efficacy. While this may seem counterintuitive, the “Anything as a service” (XaaS) nature of cloud can be even more potent across a portfolio of trusted Cloud Service Providers (CSPs).

Each cloud brings unique strengths and capabilities in terms of costs, services, footprint, support, and innovation. Moreover, each cloud continues to evolve. Implementing a multicloud portfolio has the potential to optimize the power of these clouds while reducing overall risk.

It’s fair to say that considerations should go beyond just a diversification and cost strategy. Multicloud gives public sector organizations the power to select best-of-breed capabilities and match the right workload to the optimal cloud. In addition, multicloud helps empower government leaders to protect themselves against vendor lock-in, fluctuating costs, and potential external risks. It also broadens access to an ecosystem of strategic partners.

Accelerating the cloud adoption curve

Once you get started with your first CSP, it can be easier to incorporate additional CSPs. Many aspects of the processes, knowledge base, and efficiencies created during the first rollout can serve as a playbook for future cloud engagements.

For instance, technical training can be easier and more iterative. When an organization first embraces cloud, it can make significant investments in training engineers and security staff, in addition to general education for the broader workforce. Subsequent cloud training with additional CSPs is then generally easier for teams to learn and adopt. Furthermore, key concepts are transferable, and some APIs and services are exact duplicates—all of which helps make learning new CSPs easier and cost-effective.

Cloud management efficiency at scale

Standardizing processes at scale across providers is essential to avoiding cumulative overhead costs and complexity. Agnostic partner tools play an important role. For example Kion and Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto standardize and automate security, compliance, and financial processes across CSPs. And, Terraform by Hashicorp has an infrastructure-as-code software tool that provides a consistent command-line interface workflow to manage CSPs (even on-premises).

Public sector organizations can use these options to create and maintain cloud environments that have uniform configurations and security postures and can provide real-time security monitoring—reducing costs, boosting overall security, and optimizing resource availability. For instance, in partnership with Palo Alto Networks, Google Cloud built a secure cloud access solution that allows the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) users to access services in any commercial cloud environment, while performing the required security actions of logging, threat analysis, and session control (read more here).

The right partners for your mission

A successful multicloud strategy starts with finding the right CSPs for your mission. Google’s multicloud solutions can help kick-start the journey with open source collaboration and the ability to build and scale. Beyond core capabilities, it’s essential to find a cloud partner that can help serve the core needs of your mission: simplicity and rapid time to value. For example, Google Cloud’s Anthos helps public sector organizations ensure multicloud security, allowing them to manage containerized applications across multiple cloud and on-premises environments from a single management plane.

The key to multicloud success is managing and optimizing multicloud using proven portfolio techniques to maximize return and reduce risk. Ready to elevate your multicloud strategy? Download our whitepaper, 5 ways Google can help you succeed in a hybrid and multicloud world, to learn more about how diversifying your cloud portfolio can help you meet the needs of your agency and its mission.

References:

1. More IT Leaders Say Hybrid Multicloud is Their Future
2. Study Shows Public Sector Organizations are Leading in Multicloud Adoption

We all experienced, first hand, how Covid-19 has impacted the world and our communities. Last year, store closures, reduced hours, and social-distancing requirements drove people to adopt more e-commerce options, which, according to eMarketer, grew 27.6% worldwide in 2020. Meanwhile, consumer desires to shop locally also grew with Google searches for “____ near me” up 100% year over year,¹ and 1 in 3 consumers having tried curbside pickup over the last year.²

As countries begin to lift Covid-19 restrictions, businesses are looking toward a post-pandemic future and asking ‘Which of these shopping trends will stick and how should I adapt?’ At Google, we expect consumers to continue demanding helpful shopping experiences that blur the line between the physical retail and digital experience, as well as help them to continue shopping locally.³ To address these changes in shopper behavior, we refreshed our retail solutions—adding a new solution, Product Locator, and updating Store Locator Plus—to help you offer the best possible online-to-offline experience and drive shoppers to your stores. 

Introducing Product Locator solution: connecting online shopping to nearby stores

Under Covid restrictions, consumers have grown accustomed to having a myriad of shopping options, from curbside pickup to same-day delivery. Increased searches for ‘along my route’ and ‘in stock’ tell us that convenience is king for today’s consumer.⁴ Retailers can increase online conversion rates and drive store visits by including product availability and pick-up options on each of their product description pages (PDP); emphasizing the speed and convenience of these options and saving on significant shipping costs. 

Our newest retail solution, Product Locator, can further help drive customers to visit by showing the exact distance stores are to the shopper and even estimated driving time, to further highlight the convenience of a store visit. A study conducted by Shopify found that showcasing local inventory boosted key store metrics including 45% of local pickup who made an additional purchase upon arrival.⁵ See the Product Locator solution guide to get started today.

Update your store locator page to address more of shoppers’ needs

Store locators allow shoppers to more easily find your stores and can be made even more helpful with our Store Locator Plus solution. Our updated Store Locator Plus solution refreshes the store locator page to be more informative and engaging by integrating offers redeemable in-store, online scheduling for appointments and services, and text me directions services. Implement Store Locator Plus today using the guide.

Build and customize Store Locator Plus for your business in minutes

At Google Maps Platform, we are always thinking of ways to make building a map easier and faster for our customers. In May at I/O we made Cloud-based Maps Styling generally available, enabling map updates to happen without touching a line of code. Today we’re excited to introduce Quick Builder, our free, low code builder which allows you to demo, customize and build a version of the Store Locator Plus solution for your website in minutes. Experience Quick Builder today.
To learn more about how you can start adopting these retail solutions, visit our retail solutions page.

For more information on Google Maps Platform, visit our website.

^{1 Global Insights Briefing: Getting back out there}

^{2 https://www.shopify.com/pos/future-of-retail-2021}

^{3 https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/future-of-marketing/digital-transformation/covid-trends-1-year/}

^{4 https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/pandemic-shopping-behavior/}

^{5 https://www.shopify.com/pos/future-of-retail-2021}

Founded in 2014, Swiggy started small, delivering food to a few neighborhoods in Bengaluru, India. As the company grew, the team wanted a mapping technology that could help expand the service throughout India.

Swiggy needed a scalable mapping platform that covered a wide geographic area and offered tools to help the company to build an efficient mobile app and website for customers and delivery staff.

Customers find restaurants and order from them using the Android app, iOS app, or the website. Swiggy worked with Google Maps Partner Media Agility and used a variety of Google Maps Platform APIs to develop web and mobile apps that incorporate relevant local restaurant details.

Google Maps Platform Results

• Built a hyper-local delivery service that is growing throughout India at a rate of 25 percent per month
• Deliveries are made quickly, resulting in higher customer satisfaction and retention—users have been so satisfied that nearly 80 percent of its orders are from repeat customers
• Drivers seamlessly handle tens of thousands of orders per day

In order to guarantee fast food delivery, Swiggy returns only restaurants within four to five kilometers of the customer’s location. The Directions API is used by drivers to easily route to restaurants and customers. The customer can track the progress of the delivery and estimated arrival time using a mobile app or the website.

“Google Maps provides the most accurate and reliable data, which is crucial for us because maps and location are central to our business. We also knew Google’s intuitive interface would provide a great customer experience with little to no learning curve… Google Maps’ ability to provide customer location and the distances of nearby restaurants is the backbone of our success, because it ensures a reliable, consistent customer experience,” said Aman Jain, Senior Product Manager, Swiggy.