Uncle Sam: To the Cloud!

Federal agencies will migrate 78 computer systems to the cloud, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

A December, 2010, report by U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra stated that, “Too often, federal I.T. projects run over budget, behind schedule, or fail to deliver promised functionality. Many projects use ‘grand design’ approaches that aim to deliver functionality every few years, rather than breaking projects into more manageable chunks and demanding new functionality every few quarters. In addition, the federal government too often relies on large, custom, proprietary systems when ‘light technologies’ or shared services exist.”

Cloud computing would alleviate some of the expenses -- at least $5 billion annually -- associated with current practices.

Other common items slated for cloud transition include e-mail systems, Websites and document storage.

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