From cloud-first to cloud-smart: Shaping the future of public sector IT
Ireland’s public sector continues to undergo a profound digital modernisation. Across government departments and state bodies, there is a clear commitment to using technology to deliver better, more efficient, and more responsive public services, writes Shelah McMahon, Head of Public Sector at Ergo.
The era of ‘Cloud First’ was about rapid adoption, moving workloads to the cloud as a default. But as public sector organisations advance their digital strategies, the focus is shifting from a ‘Cloud First’ mindset to a more refined ‘Cloud Smart’ approach. This evolution recognises the importance of aligning cloud adoption with organisational objectives, emphasising secure, value-driven technology decisions that deliver lasting impact.
What cloud smart really means
Cloud Smart is about intelligent workload management across public cloud, private cloud, hybrid, or on-premises. It balances agility with governance, innovation with security and compliance, and cost-efficiency and value with control. Not every service belongs in the cloud. For many public sector bodies, factors like data sovereignty, compliance, latency, and cost demand flexibility. A Cloud Smart strategy recognises this, enabling organisations to alternate between cloud and on-premises solutions to meet their needs.
As a trusted partner on multiple key government OGP frameworks, Ergo enables organisational change through Cloud Smart adoption. We help public sector bodies assess their environments, identify cloud opportunities, and design strategies that deliver measurable outcomes. From secure migration and hybrid infrastructure to governance and operating models, we guide every stage ensuring technology becomes a catalyst for innovation, resilience, and better citizen outcomes.
Innovation with agility and purpose
Innovation in the public sector thrives when cloud technologies are used to achieve specific, measurable outcomes. A Cloud Smart approach empowers organisations to innovate across every platform by aligning technology choices with strategic goals, operational realities, and citizen needs.
Rather than prioritising cloud adoption for its own sake, Cloud Smart focuses on outcomes: enabling faster delivery of services, modernising legacy systems, and integrating securely with critical infrastructure. This flexibility ensures innovation is not constrained by platform but driven by purpose.
At Ergo, we build the foundation for continuous innovation by designing secure, scalable, and interoperable solutions tailored to the public sector. Our approach supports the Irish Government’s cloud guidance and the Better Public Services strategy, while meeting data sovereignty and residency requirements.
By embracing Cloud Smart, public sector organisations are better positioned to adopt emerging technologies – especially AI. Cloud-native data platforms and AI tools unlock the full value of public data, enabling smarter, faster, and more transparent decision-making.
Security and resilience by design
For Ireland’s public sector, where trust, compliance, and continuity are non-negotiable, embedding security and resilience by design is essential. This is especially important when managing sensitive workloads across cloud, hybrid, or on-premises environments.
Cloud-based security services provide robust, continuously updated layers of defence, offering advanced threat detection, identity management, and comprehensive encryption. Simultaneously, hybrid and on-premises solutions play a critical role. By maintaining local control over sensitive workloads and meeting stringent compliance requirements, public sector organisations can strengthen resilience and security across their entire technology landscape.
“Prepared for today, planning for tomorrow, Ergo is here to help you build a digital foundation that is resilient, responsive, and ready for the future.”
By combining the robust disaster recovery and failover features of cloud platforms with resilient on-premises solutions, organisations can ensure uninterrupted public services and comprehensive protection against disruption.
Aligning innovation with regulation
The NIS2 Directive emphasises cyber resilience and incident response. A Cloud Smart mix of security and recovery tools helps public sector bodies meet these requirements, ensuring service continuity, safeguarding data, and maintaining control over critical infrastructure. A hybrid approach supports workload segmentation, low-latency access, and redundancy.
The EU AI Act introduces new requirements around transparency, risk management and accountability, especially for high-risk use cases like healthcare and law enforcement. Cloud platforms offer a wide array of platform services to aid organisations in ensuring their AI usage is ethical, fair and free from bias. Having good governance and human oversight is the key to meeting the stringent requirements of the EU AI Act.
Plan for tomorrow with Ergo
As digital advances continue to reshape how public services are designed and delivered, the question is no longer how fast to adopt cloud, but how to embed it as a core part of public infrastructure, alongside hybrid and/or on-premises solutions.
Cloud must be secure, efficient, resilient, and built for the public good. A Cloud Smart approach ensures that adoption is not just a technical upgrade, but a long-term investment in better governance, stronger service delivery, and more agile institutions.
At Ergo, we bring unmatched expertise in Cloud Smart adoption. Our market-leading cloud capabilities help public sector organisations make strategic decisions about what to move, how to move it, and how to maximise value once it is there. Our deep partnerships with best-in-class technology providers ensure access to the most advanced, secure, and scalable solutions, across cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments.
With a 30-plus year legacy of delivering results across local and central government, education, and healthcare, Ergo has a proven track record of success. We are a trusted partner on multiple government frameworks, offering a seamless route to successful outcomes, partnerships, and regulatory compliance.
We are not just delivering technology; we are delivering outcomes. Prepared for today, planning for tomorrow, Ergo is here to help you build a digital foundation that is resilient, responsive, and ready for the future.
As Ireland’s largest indigenous IT solutions provider, Ergo brings sectoral expertise across cloud, security, data and AI, licensing (with Micromail), and productivity – backed by enterprise grade managed services. We are uniquely positioned to support the public sector with consultancy, design, resourcing, and 24/7/365 managed services. We are a trusted partner on major government frameworks, including Compute and Storage Infrastructure; Back up, Replication and Disaster Recovery; and Virtualisation.
Ergo is proud to deliver innovative, secure and compliant solutions that meet the evolving needs of Ireland’s public sector. For more information, contact Shelah McMahon, Director of Public Sector:
E: shelah.mcmahon@ergotechnologygroup.com
W: www.ergotechnologygroup.com
