Cloud Computing is being relied on to help the White House reduce its IT budget by 1.6% rather than the double digit increases that have characterised previous years. For 2011, the Obama administration hopes to get by on an IT budget of $79.4 billion.
The Obama White House plans to focus on Cloud Computing, data centre consolidation and centralised services. The number of federal data centres shot up from 432 in 1998 to more than 1,100 last year. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plans to release a strategy to reduce both the number and cost of such data centres but sees Cloud Computing as a probable part-solution.
Agencies will deploy Cloud Computing pilot projects in 2010, and following an evaluation, the Cloud solutions would be implemented across agencies in 2011. There will be an on line storefront to enable subscribers to access lightweight collaboration tools, software, and platform and infrastructure service offerings in a Cloud environment.
The WhiteHouse also wants to see more collaboration among federal IT employees through using social media and other Web 2.0 technologies is another goal. “This platform would enable employees to locate other government employees with common challenges, needed skills, and ideas to solve common problems, communicate and share information, and generate better solutions to problems more efficiently,” the budget notes.
The administration also plans to centralize provision of a number of IT services for non-military agencies. “Centralizing federal IT services will reduce duplicative and wasteful spending; reduce facility space usage; increase security; improve service delivery; and reduce energy consumption,” the budget request states. “It is projected that this approach could prevent billions in increased costs across the federal government over the next few years.
"Several IT services have been identified as potential candidates for delivery through new platforms hosted by central service providers," it adds. "Central service providers will leverage planning and analysis conducted in 2010 to deliver shared IT services more efficiently and effectively. Governance, funding, performance metrics and service models will be created, communicated and implemented."
OMB also will develop several new platforms, one of which should be up and running next year to focus on collaboration across agencies. "This platform would enable employees to locate other government employees with common challenges, needed skills and ideas to solve common problems, communicate and share information and generate better solutions to problems more efficiently," the budget states. "This approach could prevent billions in increased costs across the federal government over the next few years."
In pursuit of a wider policy of Open Government, the USASpending.gov platform will be relaunched with new data, use of Data.gov will be expanded and a Citizens' Services Dashboard to provide transparency into customer service will be launched.
The 2011 budget proposes $4.0 billion for networking and information technology research and development, $3.7 billion in funding for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education, an additional $418 million in broadband spending, and a budget increase for the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
