US govt turns to the cloud to save money

Government and cloud industry experts are set to speak at a National Press Club event later this month to discuss how the cloud can save budget expenditure.

Federal agencies face major cuts in their budgets over the next several years, but the area of cloud computing is being looked at as one area where cost savings can be made as well as increased efficiencies.

The US government currently spends more than US$76 billion annually on more than 10,000 different systems.

"Fragmentation of systems, poor project execution, and the drag of legacy technology in the federal government have presented barriers to achieving the productivity and performance gains found when technology is deployed effectively in the private sectors,” said the National Press Club.

The Obama Administration is said to of asked its agencies to look to cloud computing to cut costs and solve many of the problems that have plagued government IT deployment for decades.

An event at the National Press Club on March 29 will aim to answer many issues senior government IT managers have, from developing business case analysis to which standards to adopt and which best practices to follow.

Subjects to be addressed will include:

Current status of government Cloud initiatives – lessons learnedConfusion over standards in place and still being definedFuture plans and opportunitiesChallenges and opportunitiesCommercial initiatives, where they are heading and how the government could befit from them