Yesterday, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board said that it planned to move Recovery.gov into the cloud, which will make it the first federal-wide system to take advantage of the cloud computing model.
“The move is part of the Administration’s overall efforts to cut waste and fix or end government programs that don’t work,” writes federal CIO Vivek Kundra in a blog post. “By migrating to the public cloud, the Recovery Board is in position to leverage many advantages including the ability keep the site up as millions of Americans help report potential fraud, waste, and abuse.”
The board says that the move is likely to save around $750,000 during the current budget cycle. The federal government is looking to take advantage of cloud offerings to lower total costs.
“By using cloud services, the Federal Government will gain access to powerful technology resources faster and at lower costs,” Kundra writes. “This frees us to focus on mission-critical tasks instead of purchasing, configuring, and maintaining redundant infrastructure.”
Always glad to hear about government programs that seek to save money — we could use more fiscal responsibility.
Good to see that the gov is finally getting its act together on technology
$750,000 in savings is certainly not a s mall amount. Multiply that with the number of other sites as large as Recovery.gov using cloud, and that would truly make an impact in reducing a small percentage of the deficit. Every single dollar of savings will help, and I’m glad the information officers in this administration aren’t shy in exploring new ideas in how to make the government’s presence more efficient, but more cost-effective as well.