BasicGov / BLOG

New Federal IT Policies: Adopt New Technologies and Cloud First

This week’s article in the Federal Times summarizes the US Federal government’s Office of Management and Budget six-month timetable for jump-starting new information technology reforms, which include: creating a government wide career track for IT program managers; and  adoption of a “cloud first” policy for IT projects and increased budget flexibility for federal chief information officers. (source: http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20101119/IT03/11190304/1001)

The article outlines Jeffrey Zients, OMB deputy director for management, details from his talk at the Northern Virginia Technology Council where he elaborates on reform and action steps.

Of particular interest to me as a SaaS vendor with cloud computing is the “adopt new technologies policies” which includes a “cloud-first” policies …

• By March, Zients wants agencies to set targets to achieve a 40 percent reduction in the government’s 2,094 data centers by 2015. By April, he wants agencies to implement “cloud-first” policies when considering IT purchases.

More details to follow December 9^th when Federal CIO Vivek Kundra will release a more detailed execution plan.

Federal priorities = state government priorities

As Dan Lohrmann says in his November 21 blog “state governments are usually affected by federal trends, either directly or indirectly. Bottom line, expect these same five areas to show up in a state or local government near you. Similar trends can be seen in the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) priority list for the coming year.  (source: http://www.govtech.com/blogs/lohrmann-on-infrastructure/Will-States-Adopt-Federal-112110.html

State Governments Anticipate Replacing or Installing Software

Good news for BasicGov to hear that 36% of IT decision-makers in state government anticipate an increase in their IT budgets in the next six months, up 2% since June. And even better news for BasicGov, 75% of IT decision makers at state government organizations anticipate replacing or installing software in the next six months. (sources Govtech, CDW).

IT and Cloud Computing

A Gartner survey indicates IT budgets are including cloud computing (39% of respondents).  This survey, Cloud-Computing Budgets Are Growing and Shifting, was conducted between April and July among 1,587 IT budget management professionals in 40 countries with 484 respondents. (source: ITPro)

Earlier this year, Federal Chief Information Security Office Vivek Kundra put out a report about cloud computing. It defines cloud computing (see below also) and describes the federal government approach and includes 30 case studies. The case studies provide real examples of cloud computing projects. Download report.

Cloud computing defined in Vivek Kundra’s report:

Economical. Cloud computing is a pay-as-you-go approach to IT, in which a low initial investment is required to get going. Additional investment is incurred as system use increases and costs can decrease if usage decreases. In this way, cash flows better match total system cost.

Flexible. IT departments that anticipate fluctuations in user load do not have to scramble to secure additional hardware and software. With cloud computing, they can add and subtract capacity as its network load dictates, and pay only for what they use.

Rapid Implementation. Without the need to go through the procurement and certification processes, and with a near-limitless selection of services, tools, and features, cloud computing helps projects get off the ground in record time.

Consistent Service. Network outages can send an IT department scrambling for answers. Cloud computing can offer a higher level of service and reliability, and an immediate response to emergency situations.

Increased Effectiveness. Cloud computing frees the user from the finer details of IT system configuration and maintenance, enabling them to spend more time on mission-critical tasks and less time on IT operations and maintenance.

Energy Efficient. Because resources are pooled, each user community does not need to have its own dedicated IT infrastructure. Several groups can share computing resources, leading to higher utilization rates, fewer servers, and less energy consumption.