A new survey called “Migration Motivation: The Shift in Federal Cloud Optimism” has found that 85% of federal IT decision-makers are more optimistic today about what cloud can do for their agencies than five years ago.

According to the MeriTalk survey, the biggest drivers of this shift are the cost savings, increased flexibility and end of life for legacy systems. Of 150 federal IT managers who participated in the survey, 85% said their organization is somewhat comfortable or very comfortable moving their systems to the cloud.

The survey report states that IT decision-makers seek cloud service providers that can offer guaranteed security, performance and reliability; on-call tech support; and proven experience in federal government. Vetting cloud providers and seeking those that fit these parameters can help agencies capitalize on the benefits of working with a cloud provider.