The State of Alaska received a 2024 StateScoop 50 Award for State IT Innovation for Rapid Cloud Migration. The StateScoop 50 Awards recognize the most innovative projects that advance government operations and citizen services.

Nominees were chosen by members of the state and local IT community and readers of StateScoop cast more than 1 million votes to select the 2024 winners. This year’s awards recognized leaders and projects from 25 states.

“The scale and impact of this project can’t be overlooked. This project has been our priority for nearly two years, and it’s fair to say that it has touched every part of the organization,” said the State of Alaska's Chief Information Officer, Bill Smith.

In May, the State of Alaska completed its second and final phase of Rapid Cloud Migration – a 9-month project that moved over 1,100 applications from on-premise sites in Anchorage and Juneau into the cloud without disrupting services to Alaskans.

“Completing our Rapid Cloud Migration project is a significant milestone for the State. We are now building new resources in the cloud as a routine matter and can create a multi-cloud, hybrid environment that provides advanced security, resilience, and rapid access to emerging technology not previously available,” said Smith.

Moving forward, the State will continue to evaluate if other workloads that remain in Anchorage and Juneau should move to a cloud environment.

“This project reflects the hard work of many departments. Staff dedicated time and expertise, which fundamentally changed our ability to take advantage of emerging technologies. While we’re excited to receive national recognition for Rapid Cloud Migration, we know that there is still important work ahead of us,” said Smith.