Embracing Cloud Brokerage in the Public Sector: Transforming IT Services with Oracle OCI and Mythics Support

State and local governments have traditionally centralized their IT services through shared departments or agencies, such as Offices of Information Technology (OIT), Departments of Information Technology (DIT), or Departments of Information Resources (DIR). These shared services have played a crucial role in providing governance and standardized IT functions across various state and local agencies. However, with the rise of cloud computing and the increasing prevalence of off-premise cloud service providers, the complexity of managing these services has grown significantly.

The Need for Cloud Brokerage

As cloud computing evolves, state and local governments face challenges like cloud sprawl, varied procurement processes, selecting the optimal cloud solution for specific workloads, and ensuring the best value for the state. To address these challenges, the concept of a Cloud Service Provider (CSP) "cloud brokerage" program has emerged. This program is typically managed at the shared OIT or DIT agency level and aims to streamline and centralize cloud services management. Key aspects of this shared service include:

• State-Level CSP Cloud Contract Vehicles: Establishing contracts with multiple cloud service providers to offer a range of services under a unified agreement.
• Chargeback/Showback: Implementing mechanisms to charge back or show back costs to specific agencies based on their cloud usage.
• IT Financial Management (ITFM): Managing the financial aspects of IT services to ensure cost efficiency and transparency.
• Cloud Framework Management: Developing frameworks to guide the adoption and management of cloud services.
• CSP Service Catalogs: Creating catalogs of available cloud services to simplify the procurement process.

Leveraging Oracle OCI Organization Management

Oracle's OCI Organization Management provides a robust solution for managing multiple cloud tenancies within a public sector environment. This tool enables centralized management, allowing agencies to invite and create child tenancies, view and map subscriptions, and establish governance rules. Here's how OCI Organization Management can benefit from shared services:

• Centralized Management: Parent tenancies manage multiple child tenancies, streamlining operations and resource allocation.
• Cost Management: Share a single Universal Cloud Credit (UCC) commitment to avoid cost overages and facilitate multitenancy cost management. Parent tenancies can analyze and report costs across all tenancies using Cost Analysis and Cost and Usage reports.
• Enhanced Security and Compliance: Enforce consistent security policies and governance rules across tenancies to meet compliance requirements.
• Data Isolation: For customers with strict data isolation needs, multitenancy strategies allow for effective data segregation and resource restriction.

Mythics Cloud Broker Support Services for OCI

To further support public sector organizations in their cloud journey, Mythics offers comprehensive Cloud Broker Support Services for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). These services ensure best practices, secure tenancy activation, and robust financial billing and monitoring. Key services include:

• Tenancy Instantiation and Onboarding: Guiding agencies through account activation, setting up administrator roles, and access controls.
• Governance Models and Templates Deployment: Implementing processes, policies, and governance models to manage the provisioning, administration, stewardship, and offboarding of cloud resources.
• Standard Secure Landing Zone Deployment: Establishing a foundation tenancy with best practice deployment of subnets, security lists, and compartments, along with governance and policy models.
• Budget and Alert Configuration: Setting up budgets and spending thresholds, with notifications for approaching thresholds to prevent budget overruns.
• Financial Billing: Applying specific codes to agency tenant consumption charges for precise financial management.
• Quota Management: Setting and managing quotas per compartment to control resource allocation.
• Cloud Advisor Utilization: Using OCI tools to identify and report underutilized resources, enabling quick adjustments to optimize resource usage.

The move towards cloud brokerage in the public sector is a transformative step, enabling state and local governments to efficiently manage the complexities of modern cloud environments. With tools like Oracle OCI Organization Management and support services from Mythics, public sector organizations can achieve streamlined operations, enhanced security, and cost-effective cloud management. This integrated approach not only simplifies the adoption of cloud services but also ensures that these services are managed in a way that provides the best value and highest level of governance for state and local agencies. To learn more and speak with one of our cloud experts contact us.