Department of Defense Cloud Computing Strategy
You would think the United States government would have cutting edge technology to foster information sharing and intelligence, but this isn’t always the case. In a recent Department of Defense news release, the DOD describes their current infrastructure as duplicative, cumbersome, and costly application silos.
Good news is on the way. The DOD CIO Teri Takai announced “We are moving to an enterprise cloud environment that provides tangible benefits across the department… This strategy lays the groundwork… for achieving cloud adoption within the department”.
This new cloud computing strategy aims to:
- Increase secure information sharing and collaboration
- Enhance mission effectiveness
- Decrease costs by using cloud services
Number 3 is a huge motivator and it is nice to see the government, for once, is being fiscally responsible. To achieve these goals, the DOD has constructed an implementation strategy which consists of four steps:
- Foster adoption of cloud computing
- Optimize data center consolidation
- Establish the DOD enterprise cloud infrastructure
- Deliver cloud services
Sounds easy right? Well, anyone can create a 24 page cloud computing strategy, but delivering and executing that strategy is critical for success and adoption. To ensure the transition is seamless, the DOD will establish a cloud computing governance structure to drive the policy and process changes required to accommodate true technological effectiveness.
