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7/31/2019 Cloud Can Cut $12 Billion From US Government Annual Deficit
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cloud-can-cut-12-billion-from-us-government-annual-deficit 1/2
7/05/2012 Cloud Could Cut $12 Billion from US Government Annual Deficit: Study - Forbes
1/2orbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2012/04/30/…/print/
Photo by Joe McKendrick
It was less than two years ago the federal government began egging
on its agencies to adopt a “Cloud-First” rule to IT procurement and
“Shared-First” initiative to pare down its $80-billion-a-year
budget. It appears that efforts to replace on-premises systems with
cloud services are actually bearing fruit, at least one study shows.
The study goes even further — if agencies really got aggressive
about cloud, they could shave $12 billion off the annual IT tab.
That amount almost covers NASA’s entire annual budget.
A federal IT consortium now estimates that federal agencies are now already
saving about $5.5 billion annually with their cloud implementations, but
that’s only part of the story. It’s likely that this savings will rise to $12 billion
as cloud efforts move forward.
That’s the call from MeriTalk Cloud Computing Exchange (CCX), a
community of Federal cloud leaders. The rosy savings numbers come from a
newly released survey of 108 federal IT managers that extrapolates the cloud
numbers from reported savings. On average, the IT executives report a
savings so far of at least 7% off their IT budgets for the next fiscal year. Based
on the 2013 IT budget of $78.9 billion, that’s about $5.5 billion in annual
Federal savings, the study concludes.
After three years of cloud, savings may really begin to pile on. Based upon
input provided by Feds, agencies could have
shaved 15% of their IT budgets for the last
three years with cloud, or approximately $12 billion per year. According to
MeriTalk, federal agencies and departments could have cut between $2 and
$3 billion by clouding steady-state programs and $25-$32 billion by clouding
new IT investments over the past three years.
Respondents also report than more than one-tenth of their annual IT
budgets, 11%, is now spent on cloud resources. MeriTalk CCX estimates that
this totals at least $8.7 billion, based on the 2013 federal IT budget of $78.9
billion.
The survey found differences in cloud attitudes between Department of Defense and civilian respondents. DoD respondents are more positive about
cloud’s impact, believing that the FY 2016 IT budget will decrease to $72.4
billion, while civilians think the budget will increase to $80.1 billion.
TECH | 4/30/2012 @ 1:36AM | 26,885 views
Cloud Could Cut $12 Billion fromUS Government Annual Deficit:Study
Joe McKendrick, ContributorI track how technology innovations move m arkets an d careers
7/31/2019 Cloud Can Cut $12 Billion From US Government Annual Deficit
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cloud-can-cut-12-billion-from-us-government-annual-deficit 2/2
7/05/2012 Cloud Could Cut $12 Billion from US Government Annual Deficit: Study - Forbes
2/2orbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2012/04/30/…/print/
There is still a cloud on the cloud horizon, however, and that is security. A
majority of the IT managers, 85%, say they are worried about the security
implications of moving their operations to the cloud. Additional worries come
in the form of culture (38%), and service levels (32%).
Further, Federal government respondents noted there is, to a degree,
opposition from executives within their agencies about cloud adoption.
Leading the hesitancy towards cloud were IT leadership (20%), program
management (18%), and legal (at 17%).
Seven out of ten respondents expect an increase of cloud-based applications
within the next two years. The most popular applications being moved to the
cloud to help drive these savings include collaboration tools 48%, Email
(47%), Administrative applications (43%), Conferencing software (28%), and
“Mission applications” (which presumably mean core business functions,
25%), and program or project management, 16%. DoD respondents were more
likely to see administrative applications as the leading cloud area, civilian
respondents favored conferencing software.
Now the big question is whether we’ll actually start to see that $12 billion
savings a year, or if it will be absorbed into other federal deficits. Of course, we
already know what the answer is.
But this study — even if the savings numbers are way too optimistic — is a
significant endorsement of cloud computing by the world’s largest
organization. If the US government – not known for its cost-cutting acumen –
is shaving 10% or more of its IT budget, and the no-nonsense Defense
Department is bullish on cloud savings, imagine the possibilities for a private-
sector company.
This article is available online at:http://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2012/04/30/cloud-could-cut-12-billion-from-us-government-annual-deficit-study/