The federal government is sold on the cloud. With yesterday’s announcement that the Department of Agriculture is consolidating its entire staff to online computing, it is clear that Washington is committed to the convenience and efficiency available in the cloud.
Moving 120,000 staff to Microsoft’s Online Services, the Department of Agriculture was able to combine all its employees into a single network, combining 21 communications platforms into one. For the 5,000 offices spanning 100 different countries, working together just got a whole lot easier.
Combined with the GSA’s recent contract award to Google, the federal government has signaled it is ready to make the transition to the cloud. Department of Agriculture spokesman Chris Smith explained the appeal for cloud-based solutions this way:
“For us a move to the cloud was a question of performance, service, and cost, and this solution will help us streamline our efforts and use taxpayer dollars efficiently.”
Transitioning to the cloud provides IT cost savings and improves collaboration between employees in offices throughout the world. It eliminates the need for a multitude of servers and provides flexibility when fluctuations in computing needs arise. Eight jobs across all sectors of the economy are created for every IT job consolidated to the cloud, and by 2013, new business arising from cloud computing ventures is expected to reach $166 billion in revenues.
Although landing the biggest cloud contract yet is a victory for Microsoft, the real winners are the American taxpayers and consumers. That’s why Jeff Zients, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, announced in November that it is federal policy for agencies to default to a cloud option if available. There are 2,000 separate data centers operated by the federal government and the opportunity for consolidation and improved efficiency is substantial.
The cloud is the future for office productivity. Thankfully, the federal government is leading the way in the adoption of this new platform.