Cloud computing vendors can be happy that their goods and services are on the Feds’ tech wish list.
Federal CIO Vivek Kundra has released the “Federal Cloud Computing Strategy” that says “an estimated $20 billion of the Federal Government’s $80 billion in IT spending is a potential target for migration to cloud computing solutions.”
That’s saying a quarter of the total $80 billion spend on IT could go to cloud computing.
Five departments are listed in the report for most of the $20 billion. They are Homeland Security, Treasury, Defense, Veterans Affairs and Transportation. The first two agencies are each expected to spend $2.4 billion.
“To paraphrase Sir Arthur Eddington – the physicist who confirmed Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity – cloud computing will not just be more innovative than we imagine; it will be more innovative than we can imagine,” Kundra says in the report.
The entire report has that kind of enthusiasm. He appears to have the confidence that cloud computing is an ideal model that works for the government and people.
The report reflects not only confidence but urgency. He evidently has done a CIO’s overview of computing costs and returns and doesn’t like what he sees.
“The Federal Government’s current Information Technology (IT) environment is characterized by low asset utilization, a fragmented demand for resources, duplicative systems, environments which are difficult to manage, and long procurement lead times. These inefficiencies negatively impact the Federal Government’s ability to serve the American public.”
Not only that—Kundra would like to see the cloud computing initiative on full speed sooner than later.
“Our responsibility in government is to achieve the significant cost, agility and innovation benefits of cloud computing as quickly as possible. The strategy and actions described in this paper are the means for us to get started immediately,” he said.
“Given that each agency has unique mission needs, security requirements, and IT landscape, we ask that each agency think through the attached strategy as a next step.”
