Disputed Territory?

Not as charged as Palestine and the Ukraine, Federal cloud is nevertheless disputed territory. Released three and a half years after OMB issued the “Cloud First Policy”, a new MeriTalk study “Cloud Confusion: Is Private Cloud Holding Feds Back?” provides a sanity check on Uncle Sam’s cloud progress.

$18.9 Billion Bonanza

Based on a survey of 159 Fed IT execs, the study opens with big numbers. The Federal government could save $18.9 Billion by migrating services and apps to the cloud.

Going Public

But, if you dig beneath the promise, cloud reality comes up short. And, it seems how you define cloud is disputed territory. Forty four percent of Feds report their agencies are missing out on savings by using private clouds versus public or community solutions. And, they tell us that 56 percent of Feds’ cloud adoption to date has been private cloud.

C is for Cloud

The majority of Federal IT managers give their agencies a “C” or below for cloud progress. Only 41 percent said their agency considers cloud as part of the overall IT strategy. Fifty one percent have used cloud strictly for a limited number of specific applications. That said, those agencies that fully embraced cloud in their overall IT strategy show much better savings performance. Cloud-centric agencies saved twice as much with their cloud deployments than box-hugger agencies.

Securing Savings

Considering the savings sweet spot moving forward in the next two years, agencies tell us they’ll migrate CRM, logistics, and procurement applications. Further, FedRAMP is important – 41 percent say that they’ll explore public, hybrid, or community clouds thanks to FedRAMP certification.

Check out the study and mark your calendar to attend the Cloud Computing Brainstorm September 10 at the Newseum in D.C. DISA CIO David Bennett is our keynote – his perspectives will be insightful. That much is indisputable.