White House has announced a mandate for all US government agencies to embrace cloud computing. White House wants government agencies to shift from relying on proprietary, custom IT solutions to adopting lighter technologies and shared solutions.
When evaluating options for new IT development, agencies should default to cloud-based solutions whenever a secure, reliable, cost-effective cloud option exists, rather than building their own technologies in-house. The government agencies will consider Web-based applications in areas like productivity and collaboration.
Currently the US federal IT installation has more than 2,000 data centers, many of which operate well below their peak capacity. The Federal government also plans to reduce the number of federal data centers by 40 percent by 2015.
“We can no longer accept a government that performs less effectively and less efficiently than the private sector,” according to Jeffrey Zients, the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. [I really hope that India’s Central and State government servants listen to this!]
[source: Datamation]What is Cloud Computing?
Introduction to Problem
Computers and software are now a part of everyday life. We use email, set up websites, and some of us run our own businesses. We are able to use these services without having to host our own massive IT infrastructure, hiring tons of staff to operate it, spending a lot of money and getting mired in lengthy and complicated procurement processes. If you can do this easily – why can’t the government?
The Federal Government has an extensive infrastructure, a broad user base in agencies with a variety of missions, and complex suites of applications. To address these challenges, the Federal CIO Council has charged the government to leverage cloud computing services.
Cloud Computing Definition
So, what is cloud computing? According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), cloud computing provides scalable IT capabilities that are offered as a service over the Internet to multiple users. Many users share pooled IT resources, reducing costs and resulting in greater computing efficiency. The Federal Government is focusing on security, privacy, and procurement as it moves towards cloud computing.
Benefits of Cloud Computing
Traditional IT can call for large data centers and server farms, which are a serious investment and require 24/7 IT oversight and energy to power and cool the servers. The Federal Government has hundreds of these centers around the country that often perform similar tasks, such as providing email or web hosting and are generally used at a fraction of their capability. They typically have large carbon footprints due to their enormous energy consumption, and have to comply with strict environmental controls. Cloud computing can be viewed as the green computing option, as it promotes sustainability and has a much smaller carbon footprint by limiting duplicated efforts and utilizing computing power more efficiently.
Cloud computing also offers scalability, meaning you can scale capacity and processing power on-demand. Cloud computing is evolving and is not an immediate solution for all government computing needs. But it can give the federal government the same opportunity the private sector enjoys to reduce spending while making better use of staff and resources with a more forward-thinking, environmentally sensitive approach.
Cloud Computing can change the way Government leverages technology: at a Lower Cost, Faster, Greener [courtesy: apps.gov]
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