BasicGov / BLOG

Last month the US Federal government’s Office of Management and Budget released its six-month timetable for jump-starting new information technology reforms (see blog) and now Vivek Kundra Unveils Federal IT Reform Plan.

Government Technology reported that “The implementation plan’s 25 goals — slated to be put in place within six to 18 months — will reduce the number of federally run data centers from 2,100 to approximately 1,300, rectify or cancel one-third of troubled IT projects, and require federal agencies to adopt a “cloud first” strategy in which they will move at least one system to a hosted environment within a year.” (source: http://www.govtech.com/enterprise-technology/Vivek-Kundra-Unveils-Federal-IT-Reform-Plan.html)

Some highlights of the implementation plan are:

• Shift to “Cloud First” policy
• Each agency will identify three “must move” services within three months, and move one of those services to the cloud within 12 month and the remaining two within 18 months
• Make sure IT programs use a modular approach with usable functionality delivered every six months
• Turnaround or terminate at least one-third of underperforming projects in IT portfolio within the next 18 months
• Reduce number of Federal data centers by at least 800 by 2015
• Work with Congress to: Consolidate commodity IT funding under the Agency CIOs and Develop flexible budget models that align with modular development
• Launch an interactive platform for pre-RFP agency-industry collaboration

Click here to read full plan http://cio.gov/documents/25-Point-Implementation-Plan-to-Reform-Federal%20IT.pdf

I received a webinar invitation today that let with these facts:

• $5.5 trillion a year.
• $105 billion a week.
• $15 billion a day.
• $625 million an hour.
• $10 million a minute.
• $175,000 a second.

These numbers represent the combined spending by federal, state, and municipal governments right now. This represents almost half of total U.S. GDP, and that percentage is expected to increase in the coming year.

These are stunningly eye-catching numbers and for marketers, a great lesson in getting the attention from those interested in a topic. I always want to know as much as I can about my customers, so how can I not attend this webinar.

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