The Government and Cloud Computing

With the advent of big data, and the storage requirements it calls for, the government of the United States and others are moving much of their storage to the cloud.  It is no secret that the government tends to lag behind private industries in making use of the latest technology, but with cloud computing, many government agencies are starting to see the light as to the benefits that can be had using the cloud.

Optimizing Performance and Service Delivery

With the emphasis on lowering the cost of government over the past several years, many government agencies have sought to optimize their business models, and the result of that has been the move toward more shared services.

The government is now discovering what the private sector has known for several years.  Cloud computing cuts costs with shared infrastructures and services.  The adaptation of cloud computing is also helping the government to be more business flexible, despite the fact that back-end silo systems are still in use.

The Government’s Private Cloud and Public Uses

The federal government however is not using the same cloud computing model that is used by some of your favourite internet retailers.  The government employs private cloud environments that have some of the same elasticity that is found in the public clouds, but they are infinitely more reliable in order to handle mission critical jobs and heavy workloads.

So just how much does the US government depend on cloud computing?  The budget for the last fiscal year included $1.7 billion for the private cloud used by the government, and just over $118 million for public cloud use.

And it is not just the federal government that is changing the way they do business in order to adapt to emerging technologies and deliver better and faster services.  State governments and even local governments are doing the same.

Governments on all levels are having to redefine their business model in order to deliver more and better services to the citizens they serve.  Now there is a US Federal Cloud Computing Strategy in place to speed up the rate of adoption of cloud services.

Crucial Government Services That Are Cloud-Based

Governments on all levels provide shared services for the citizens they serve.  Today, citizens can monitor their energy and water use to make sure they make the most out of their usage, and conserve as much as possible.  Now many citizens can access what the status of their government service requests, and even medical records are kept online now.

The cloud, both private and public is changing the way governments on all levels do business for the better, making them more agile and open to change, and also helping to reduce costs.  Expect to see more of this in the future, and more governments on all levels moving shared services and more to the cloud.