In the wake of a successful pilot to host the secretary of the Navy’s public website on the Amazon Web Services cloud, Terry Halvorsen, CIO of the Navy, has directed the Navy and the Marines to use commercial cloud services providers to host all publically releasable information.
In compliance with the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which mandated the migration of defense data to the cloud, this new directive aims to increase efficiencies without compromising operational effectiveness – all while driving down overall costs.
This new effort essentially bypasses DISA’s efforts to become the leading provider of cloud computing services to the U.S. Military, according to NextGov. DISA currently operates 14 data centers across the globe and intends to reduce this number by embracing more cloud-based solutions.
“The DON first considered a government site to host the portal but found that commercial sites are less expensive,” Halvorsen wrote in a recent issue of the Department of Navy’s Information Technology Magazine. “Further, congressional guidance requires the department to evaluate and select commercially provided services that meet security standards and are less expensive than what it costs to perform those services internally. As a result, the DON has achieved a 50 percent reduction in cost to operate the portal.”
The overall benefits of cloud computing for government is numerous:
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Scalable computing and storage capacity
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Rapid self-provisioning computing capabilities
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Decrease in IT operating costs
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Reduction in infrastructure maintenance
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More time for IT staff to devote to mission-critical activities
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Higher level of service and reliability
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Less energy consumption
It should also be noted that UNICOM government’s cloud computing maturity model (CCMM) helps agencies build a framework for successful transition to a cloud computing environment by offering practical steps that can facilitate the migration.
In addition, UNICOM government has engineered a secure and controlled cloud environment for customers to pilot applications in the cloud and to evaluate the latest cloud technologies as they become available.
As the federal government deals with less resources while mission requirements stay intact, unique cloud-based solutions will tremendously aid in bringing down overall IT costs and ensure overall effectiveness for the long-term.