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NEW YORK, May 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- As corporate CIOs work full-steam-ahead to transform their companies into digitally driven organizations, public sector IT leaders have struggled to keep pace.  Concerns about costs, security and delivering a consumer-like user experience to citizens interacting with government entities electronically have held many government and education IT pros back from fully embracing a pending digital transformation many consider both valuable and inevitable.  According to Logicalis US, an international IT solutions and managed services provider (www.us.logicalis.com), advances in hybrid cloud computing, IT service management (ITSM), and security solutions are quickly changing the way SLED IT experts view what is now considered the start of the first digital decade.

"People are consuming technology at an unprecedented pace in their personal lives, and that has led to an expectation that electronic access to key information from their state and local governments should be as fast and easy as the digital experience they enjoy both at home and at work," says Allison West Hughes, Regional Vice President, Sales-West, Logicalis US.  "To deliver on these expectations, state and local governments have to consider things like cloud-based services, ITSM and security solutions that will allow them to keep pace technologically with their corporate counterparts, yet do so in a way that shifts capital expenses to more affordable op-ex costs, requires little to no additional staffing, and gives them access to highly skilled and certified IT expertise on an as-needed basis."

Three Ways SLED Can Meet Digital Demands

According to a recent survey of more than 400 organizations' IT leaders in 24 countries, CIOs worldwide have begun to shift their focus from providing technology to providing services that meet their users' business needs.  Logicalis experts say government CIOs who are interested in taking a page from their corporate counterparts' playbook should examine new cloud, ITSM and security solutions that can help them similarly transform their IT departments and better position themselves to deliver the digital experience citizens expect at a price point that complies with state, local and K-12 budget and hiring guidelines.

• Cloud: With the advances that have been made in hybrid cloud technologies, Logicalis suggests that government IT pros view future hardware purchases with a discerning eye. It may not be necessary to maintain a data center – and take on the responsibility, cost and personnel needed to do so – when a cloud solution provider can offer private, public or hybrid solutions backed by performance-based SLAs often at a significantly reduced cost. If the issue is survivability of data, the cloud can offer that redundancy as well with no additional real estate costs on a pay-as-you-go, pay-as-you-grow basis.
• ITSM: As government employees work to meet the increasing demands of a digitally aware constituency, having quick access to an array of IT tools that will help them do their jobs both efficiently and effectively will soon become critically important. Tapping the next-generation of ITSM tools will be the key to delivering the array of services government agencies and departments will need to meet those expectations.
• Security: Every government CIO is hyper-aware that their agency could experience the next headline-making data breach. It's not even a question of if a breach will happen anymore – that's a near certainty – which makes it critical to know exactly what data needs to be protected most, what damage could be done if an attack occurred, and what the agency or department's incident response and recovery strategies will be. Logicalis recommends all CIOs prepare by asking themselves 10 tough questions because, when it comes to security, hope is not a strategy.

Want to Learn More?

• Meet with Logicalis SLED experts at the Arizona Digital Government Summit, May 10-11, at the Hyatt Regency in Phoenix: http://ow.ly/4mUr8e.
• Learn more about Logicalis' expertise in K-12 education, state and local government markets throughout the southwestern United States: http://ow.ly/4mUrLK.
• Explore Logicalis' K-12 E-Rate solutions as well as its Arizona procurement contracts: http://ow.ly/4mUs8q.

About Logicalis
Logicalis is an international IT solutions and managed services provider with a breadth of knowledge and expertise in communications and collaboration; data center and cloud services; and managed services.

Logicalis employs over 4,000 people worldwide, including highly trained service specialists who design, deploy and manage complex IT infrastructures to meet the needs of over 6,500 corporate and public sector customers. To achieve this, Logicalis maintains strong partnerships with technology leaders such as Cisco, HP, IBM, EMC, NetApp, Microsoft, VMware and ServiceNow on an international basis. It has specialized solutions for enterprise and medium-sized companies in vertical markets covering financial services, TMT (telecommunications, media and technology), education, healthcare, retail, government, manufacturing and professional services, helping customers benefit from cutting-edge technologies in a cost-effective way.

The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of over $1.5 billion from operations in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific and is one of the leading IT and communications solution integrators specializing in the areas of advanced technologies and services.

The Logicalis Group is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on the Johannesburg and London AIM Stock Exchanges, with revenues of over $6 billion.

For more information, visit www.us.logicalis.com.

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Media contacts:
Nickie Peters, Director of Marketing,
Logicalis US
nickie.peters@us.logicalis.com 
920-338-7622
www.us.logicalis.com

Karen Franse, Communication Strategy Group for Logicalis US
kfranse@gocsg.com 
866-997-2424
www.gocsg.com

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SOURCE Logicalis US