While Alaska is the largest state, it's the least densely populated. With local government agencies and departments dispersed across more than 600,000 square miles, creating a reliable and efficient statewide IT infrastructure is no easy feat.

When Corey Kos became the state of Alaska's enterprise architect in 2010, he set out on a mission to create an infrastructure that would deliver IT services via private cloud, reducing overall expenses and allowing Alaska's government employees to work efficiently. Three years later Kos has exceeded his objectives and successfully connected 'The Last Frontier.'

Tasked with building a new statewide data center and private cloud, Kos sought solutions that offered reliability and security along with ease-of-use and accelerated deployments. After consulting with independent research firm Gartner, Kos chose Cisco Unified Computing System and FlexPod to enable shared IT services across the state.

The two solutions were able to simplify data center operations and support cloud computing. To date, Alaska has deployed more than 200 servers, reduced service charges by 50 percent, cut hardware and cooling costs, streamlined operations and increased service offerings.

With an efficient system up and running, Kos and his team can devote their time and resources toward tasks that will help better serve the citizens of Alaska.

If you're interested in learning more about the state of Alaska's success, the case study chronicles their challenges, solutions, results and next steps.

Want to join the cloud conversation? Hear from an expert panel of government and education professionals in the upcoming "National Townhall on Cloud 201: Getting Both -Efficiency and Agility with Public and Private Clouds", which will take place on April 9th, 2013.

Finally, make sure to stay tuned to the Cisco Government blog for upcoming installments of the "Cloud for Local Government" blog series or click on the Cisco 21st Century Government banner below to register and reserve your copy of the complete compilation of the series, including this blog as well as a variety of cloud resources, which will be available in May.

To view this blog in Spanish, click here.  For Portuguese, click here.