By now, the cloud is hardly some new thing to be approached with caution. In fact, adoption is growing so pervasive, that nearly two-thirds of global tech professionals say they expect their companies to run 100 percent of their IT in the cloud by 2020, according to industry research.

Unfortunately, the federal government is far from moving forward with a similar transition: Most agencies are allocating 3 percent or less of their overall IT budget to cloud services, according to research conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Overall, the percentage of IT spending devoted to cloud services has only increased 1 percent in the last three years.

Clearly, going off the premises for IT remains low among spending priorities, as federal leaders don't even consider cloud computing services for two-thirds of their IT investments — a staggering sense of resistance that flies in the face of the "Cloud First" policy of 2011 from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The two-thirds of investments are automatically withdrawn from any consideration for cloud computing services because they are tied to legacy operations and maintenance systems, and agencies do not intend to assess these systems for the cloud until they're scheduled to be modernized or replaced.

Even within that context, however, the GAO indicates that agencies are circumventing Cloud First.

"This is inconsistent with (OMB) policy that calls for cloud solutions to be considered first whenever a secure, reliable and cost-effective option exists regardless of where the investment is in its life cycle," according to a GAO summary statement of its research, which focused upon seven selected agencies, including the General Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security. "Until the agencies fully assess all their IT investments, they will not be able to achieve the resulting benefits of operational efficiencies and cost savings."

Obviously, government purchasers realize that increased operational efficiencies and cost savings are a good, not bad, thing. So why aren't they migrating more quickly?

In many cases, it's because they're used to building a specific, singular infrastructure architecture around their apps. For certain, they can see that migrating functions provided by these aging apps would yield the previously described advantages. But they're unsure as to which major cloud vendor to entrust with such a tremendous undertaking. To them, the investment decision is akin to responding to an "all in" call at the poker table – you need to have full faith in the hand you're putting your chips on, or you're going to fold.

In reality, however, cloud adoption doesn't require all-in commitment. Agencies can migrate tech functions and services piece-by-piece. One vendor, for example, may offer a different menu of services. Another could provide a higher level of support for specific applications. In other words, you don't have to place all of your apps in one basket. You can shop around and "hedge your bet" by using multiple providers.

What's more, the emerging popularity of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is making all of this so much easier. Simply stated, PaaS is the mortar that holds together Software as a Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). With PaaS, agencies acquire platforms immediately to fast-track app delivery, with the capability to scale on demand.

Even better, some PaaS can operate anywhere in the cloud, regardless of the vendor. This places the emphasis where it belongs – on app development. You can configure the app to best support the requirements of your agency, and then pick-and-choose among providers according to their individual strengths.

Which means, of course, that you don't have to take all of your IT budget chips and go all in with one cloud vendor. With PaaS solutions readily available, you can essentially deal your own hand – and reap the lasting rewards of optimal productivity at a minimal cost.

Jim Benson is chief visionary officer at CorasCloud.

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