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White House Jumping On The 'Cloud' Bandwagon
By John Vinson
Expert Author
Article Date: 2011-02-17
Who knew that making upgrades in the IT sector of our government could potentially save us billions of dollars.According to U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, that's how much tax payer money could be saved by upgrading the country's infrastructure. Kundra wants to see the shutting down of hundreds of data centers and moving to the 'cloud'.
During the past ten years, most businesses have been cutting back the amount of data centers they use. However, the US government added nearly 1,500. The expansion has inflated the IT budget.
Due to this inflation, Kundra has created the "Federal Cloud Computing Strategy". The hope is that various government agencies will see the potential of the cloud, and also to generate even more ideas to run our infrastructure more efficiently.
Kundra has listed a specific goal; to shut down 800 data centers by 2015. If this goal were to be reached, it could potentially save billions of dollars in tax money.
Some agencies have preemptively switched to the cloud, even before Kundra's call to action. The General Services Administration has moved their e-mail service to the cloud, which is projecting to save millions of dollars in the coming years.
There have been some doubters who believe switching to the cloud is a security risk. The reason for all the data centers is to protect the information that makes our government work. Many have a fear that the cloud would open us to a growing amount of threats.
In the Federal Cloud Computing Strategy, Kundra states he wants to "tap into the innovative spirit" of technology based businesses. This statement certainly coincides withObama visiting with Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerburg.
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for WebProNews.
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