Cloud computingHow cloud computing can help the U.S. government -- and citizens

In unveiling the Obama administration’s cloud computing initiative, the federal CIO Vivek Kundra pointed to a revamping of the General Services Administration’s (GSA) USA.gov site as an example. Using a traditional approach to add scalability and flexibility, he said, it would have taken six months and cost the government $2.5 million a year. By turning to a cloud-computing approach, the upgrade took just a day and cost only $800,000 a year.

ZD Net UK’s Daniel Terdiman writes that Kundra did not go into detail about how long it may take the government to transition fully, but he hinted it could take as much as a decade to complete the cloud computing “journey.”

Three-part initiative
While repeatedly referencing the fact many government efforts must make allowances in their IT needs for security, Kundra argued that in many other cases there is little reason federal agencies cannot turn to online resources for quick, easy and cheap provisioning of applications.

As a result, the first major element of the initiative is the brand new Apps.gov site, a clearing house for business, social media, and productivity applications, as well as cloud IT services. Terdiman notes that the site is not yet fully functional, but it is evident the administration hopes that for many agencies, the site will eventually be a one-stop shop for the kinds of services that to date have required extensive IT spending, and Kundra said he believes some at the Department of Energy has already been using the site for some of its needs.

The second element of the effort, Kundra said, will be budgeting. For fiscal year 2010, the administration will be pushing cloud-computing pilot projects, reflecting the effort’s priority and hopes that many lightweight workflows can be moved into the cloud. For fiscal 2011, it will be issuing guidance to agencies throughout government.

Finally, the initiative will include policy planning and architecture that will be made up of centralized certifications, target architecture and security, privacy and procurement concerns. Kundra said every effort will be made to ensure that data is protected and secure, and that whatever changes are made are “pragmatic and responsible.”

It is clear, though, that the administration has seen benefits in the way private industry uses cloud computing, and intends to mirror these benefits. Ultimately, Kundra added, the idea is to make it simple for agencies to procure the applications they need. “Why should the government pay for and build infrastructure that may be available for free?” Kundra asked.

One inspiration, he explained, are advances the government has already seen in the streamlining of student aid application forms. The so-called FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form is “more complicated” than the federal 1040 tax form, Kundra said. In a joint effort between the IRS and the Department of Education, it has become possible with one click of a mouse button for IRS data to populate the FAFSA form, Kundra said, eliminating more than 70 questions and 20 screens.

If the government seeks to do such things across the board, it will ultimately deliver large savings to taxpayers and significantly reduce the environmental impact of government IT systems.