1. Introduction¶

The health emergency has made it even clearer how crucial and strategic digital infrastructures are for our country, on a par with traditional infrastructures such as motorways, railways and the electricity grid. The adoption and diffusion of digital technologies has in fact been accelerated and facilitated by the pandemic, enabling new ways of studying and working remotely.

Among the enablers of the country’s digital transformation, a central role is played by Cloud Computing technologies, which make it possible to simplify and optimize the management of IT resources and facilitate the adoption of new digital technologies.

The need for Cloud technologies is set to increase in light of the exponential growth in the volume of data processed [1] and the pervasiveness of digital services requiring computational infrastructures that can be quickly and flexibly expanded and scaled, which is something difficult to achieve using traditional data centres.

The irreversible process of the digital transformation of society has induced a similar transformation of the Public Administration (PA), both to ensure greater quality, efficiency and effectiveness of public services, and to support and create new development opportunities for the country’s digital economy.

For the PA, the use of Cloud makes it possible to achieve these objectives with a significant reduction in costs while also helping to increase energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. At the same time, the various architectural paradigms and service delivery models impose the need to adopt an organic national strategy that can guarantee the necessary strategic autonomy and resilience for the country, as well as security and national control of citizens’ data and services.

This document aims to set out a strategic plan for the adoption of Cloud Computing in the PA, in light of the emerging opportunities and risks.