Cloud computing can significantly improve public sector IT
A number of government agencies are adopting cloud technologies and are realizing considerable benefits. For instance, NASA Nebula,5 through a community cloud, gives researchers access to IT services relatively inexpensively in minutes.
Prior to adopting this approach, it would take researchers months to procure and configure comparable IT resources and significant management oversight to monitor and upgrade systems. Applying cloud technologies across the entire Federal Government can yield tremendous benefits in efficiency, agility, and innovation. These benefits are described below.
Efficiency improvements will shift resources towards higher-value activities
In FY2010, approximately thirty cents of every dollar invested in Federal IT was spent on data center infrastructure.6 Unfortunately, only a fraction of this investment delivers real, measurable impact for American citizens.
By using the cloud computing model for IT services, we will be able to reduce our data center infrastructure expenditure by approximately 30%7 (which contributes to the estimated $20 billion of IT spending that could be migrated to cloud computing solutions).
Similar efficiency improvements will be seen in software applications and end-user support. These savings can be used to increase capacity or be reinvested in agency missions, including citizen-facing services and inventing and deploying new innovations.
Cloud computing can allow IT organizations to simplify, as they no longer have to maintain complex, heterogeneous technology environments. Focus will shift from the technology itself to the core competencies and mission of the agency.