This article draws on research commentary originally published by FedScoop, featuring insights from Splunk’s public sector strategy team.
Cloud Migration Remains an Unfinished Task for Many Federal Agencies
Cloud migration has been a stated priority for federal agencies for over a decade, yet the COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant gaps in how far different agencies had actually progressed. While some agencies had modernized core infrastructure, many were still heavily dependent on legacy systems when operational disruptions hit hardest.
Third-party research compiled by Splunk suggests that cultural barriers among public sector leaders are a significant factor slowing cloud adoption. At the same time, the research indicates growing agency interest in FedRAMP-authorized cloud services as a path to accelerating digital modernization.
“Often we hear that leaders discuss modernization efforts, but a combination of legacy systems and poor insight into what they have, they are finding it difficult to actually start the modernization process.”
— Ashok Sankar, Director of Marketing and Strategy, Public Sector and Education, Splunk
The Scale of the Confidence Problem
One study cited by Splunk surveyed 156 IT decision-makers in the public sector. The results were striking: only 13 percent expressed confidence in their organization’s ability to modernize current systems and applications, including cloud and hybrid migrations. That leaves the overwhelming majority uncertain about their ability to execute one of the most fundamental IT transformations of the modern era.
This confidence gap has real consequences. Agencies that cannot accurately assess their current environment — what systems they run, how they interact, where sensitive data lives — will struggle to build a reliable migration plan regardless of how strong their intent is.
Key Challenges Organizations Face When Migrating to the Cloud
A separate study of more than 600 IT and security practitioners identified the most common obstacles to cloud migration. Three challenges stood out:
- Inability to achieve a strong security posture — cited by 65% of respondents
- Complexity of migrating from on-premises to cloud — cited by 61% of respondents
- Lack of visibility into resource utilization, metering, and monitoring — cited by 60% of respondents
Notably, all three of these challenges share a common root cause: insufficient data visibility. Organizations that cannot see what they have, how resources are being consumed, or where threats originate are unable to make confident, well-informed migration decisions.
Why Data Analytics and Security Analytics Are Central to Migration Success
Data analytics platforms address the visibility gap directly. By collecting and correlating data across heterogeneous sources — regardless of format or timescale — these tools provide IT teams with real-time views into system performance, availability, and security posture during and after migration.
“If you harness your data, you’ll be able to gather real-time insights to solve challenges like minimizing security risks and migrating to the cloud while at the same time improving citizen experience and mission assurance.”
— Ashok Sankar, Splunk
Practically, this means teams can:
- Monitor workload behavior before, during, and after lift-and-shift operations
- Detect anomalies or security events in real time as environments are reconfigured
- Correlate logs and metrics across on-premises and cloud environments in hybrid phases
- Build an accurate inventory of assets to inform migration sequencing and risk assessment
FedRAMP: The Federal Standard for Cloud Security Authorization
For U.S. federal agencies, cloud service selection is governed by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). FedRAMP provides a standardized security assessment framework so that agencies can adopt cloud services with confidence that they meet legally mandated federal security requirements.
“FedRAMP is the gold standard. It is an extensive evaluation process to ensure the highest level of cloud security to ensure a service is meeting legally mandated federal security measures. It saves the government 30-to-40% of their authorization costs.”
— Ashok Sankar, Splunk
The cost-savings claim reflects FedRAMP’s “do once, use many times” model: a cloud service provider (CSP) that earns a FedRAMP authorization can be reused by multiple agencies without each agency needing to independently assess the same controls from scratch.
Agency Adoption of FedRAMP Is Growing
Research compiled by Splunk references a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study that tracked FedRAMP adoption trends across federal agencies. Key findings from that study include:
- From June 2017 to July 2019, the number of instances of agencies using FedRAMP authorizations grew from 390 to 926 — more than doubling in two years.
- 21 of 24 agencies reported that FedRAMP made their data in cloud environments more secure or approximately as secure as their prior arrangements.
- 21 of 24 agencies reported that FedRAMP authorization reduced costs associated with reviewing Cloud Service Provider (CSP) assessment and authorization packages.
These figures indicate that FedRAMP is delivering measurable value — both in security outcomes and in operational efficiency — for the agencies that have adopted it.
What This Means for Agency Leaders Planning Modernization
The core message from the research is actionable: the tools needed to migrate successfully already exist and are accessible. The barrier for many agencies is not capability — it is awareness and the will to start. Sankar’s recommendation is straightforward: let data drive the modernization strategy.
“What leaders need to know is that the tools exist and are attainable that can give them the visibility they need to migrate systems properly while ensuring an acceptable risk posture and be confident that they can save time and money for their agency.”
— Ashok Sankar, Splunk
Practically, this means prioritizing platforms that offer:
- Broad data ingestion — the ability to collect logs, metrics, and events from legacy on-premises systems as well as cloud-native services
- Security analytics — correlation and alerting capabilities that surface threats in hybrid and multi-cloud environments
- FedRAMP authorization — so the platform itself meets federal compliance requirements without additional per-agency review cycles
- Real-time operational visibility — dashboards and monitoring tools that help teams understand resource utilization, application performance, and migration progress as it happens
Summary
Cloud migration for federal agencies is not simply a technical problem — it is a visibility and confidence problem. Research indicates that most public sector IT leaders lack confidence in their modernization capabilities, and the primary barriers they cite (security posture, migration complexity, and monitoring gaps) are all addressable through data analytics platforms. FedRAMP-authorized services provide an established framework for adopting these platforms securely, with a demonstrated track record of cost reduction and security improvement across participating agencies. For agencies still in the planning phase, the starting point is the same: gather data about what you have, and let that data guide where you go.