By Susie Adams, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft Federal
The benefits of cloud computing are widely known – scalability, flexibility, pay-as-you-go consumption model – but determining which assets belong in the cloud, and what cloud environment they should be housed in, can be challenging. To shed some light on migration best practices, Federal CIO Vivek Kundra outlined a federal cloud computing strategy last week and it contains some extremely useful information for agencies.
As my colleague Larry Grothaus pointed out in a recent blog post, Kundra’s report states that “an estimated $20 billion of the federal government’s $80 billion in IT spending is a potential for migration to cloud computing solutions.” So ¼ of what we currently spend on IT could be managed more efficiently, and for cost-effectively, in a cloud environment. But beyond recommendations, the strategy document provides some much-needed education for federal decision-makers. Kundra outlines various options in this rapidly-changing IT environment we’re all trying to navigate, including public, private and hybrid cloud models.
At Microsoft we were excited that the report included the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its successful case studies section. The USDA recently selected Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) for its email and productivity applications, and the agency has extremely valuable migration lessons to share – from calculating ROI to evaluating security requirements. Not only does the USDA expect to save an estimated $6 million a year by migrating to a cloud-based productivity solution, but the agency gains efficiency benefits by leveraging the latest communications and collaboration tools, including SharePoint, Office Communications and Live Meeting online services.
Cloud computing continues to transform the way government is serving the American people, and we want to use this blog as a place to gather best practices. Check back in next week for posts on calculating cloud total cost of ownership (TCO) and ensuring your cloud solution is “enterprise-ready”, and capable of delivering functionality that federal agencies demand.