Commercial cloud is the bipartisan solution to modernizing government IT

Michael Beckerman, the president and CEO of the Internet Association, makes the case for why agencies should adopt commercial cloud services.

Virtually every function and citizen service performed by our government relies on information technology. From managing the data used to verify our identities, to processing Social Security benefits, to supporting our military abroad and at home, our government depends on technology to carry out the tasks that enable our way of life. Yet in recent years, roughly three-quarters of the federal government’s vast $80 billion IT budget has been siphoned off to maintain legacy technologies that are often well past their prime.

Let’s face it: Not moving forward means falling behind. So it’s time for federal and state governments to accelerate their adoption of commercial cloud computing solutions.

Commercial clouds, offered by Internet Association members like Amazon, Dropbox, Google, Microsoft, Rackspace and Salesforce have a number of benefits — around both cost and performance — that set them apart from legacy IT infrastructure.

Commercial clouds help lower operational costs for government agencies by allowing them to be nimble and rapidly scale computing resources up or down as needed. It’s not uncommon for operational needs to change, calling for more or less computing power than originally expected. With physical servers, the expense is still incurred even if an agency ends up needing less computing power. And if they need more, agencies are required to go through the costly and timely practice of purchasing and configuring all new machinery. Commercial clouds offer the flexibility to adapt to each project, allowing agencies the ability to reallocate resources and eliminate additional costs associated with managing their IT systems.

Adoption of commercial cloud solutions also allows government agencies to perform more efficiently. In addition to addressing scaling needs, commercial clouds enhance security by protecting data at all layers, unlike outdated systems often found on physical servers that only protect data at the perimeter. Commercial clouds can also rapidly roll out patches — or updates — to address security vulnerabilities or other bugs. They also improve how data is stored, interpreted, and processed, which also allows for more seamless information sharing and collaboration among agencies.

The federal government implemented a Cloud First policy in 2011 to ensure that new IT solutions would be cloud-oriented. And some government agencies, including those at the local and state levels, are already on the right track. They’re using the commercial cloud to better engage with constituents online and on their smartphones. Cloud-enabled resources include chatbots to help small businesses easily navigate municipal processes, platforms that allow government employees to work remotely on any device, and apps displaying up-to-the-second transit schedules.

Policymakers on both sides of the aisle understand the need to modernize the country’s aging IT systems, but it’s now time they take action.

Congress passed the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act of 2017, which established the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) to fund long-term modernization efforts. The working capital funds established by the MGT Act provide agencies the budgetary flexibility needed to take on modernization efforts — like commercial cloud adoption — that may stretch over a longer period than the traditional annual appropriation cycle allows. The funds also allow for any savings from modernization efforts to be put toward future projects over a multi-year period. The 2018 omnibus spending bill appropriated $100 million to the TMF, which is still significantly less than for what the administration initially asked. It’s a step in the right direction, but additional funding is necessary if agencies truly want to modernize and realize the full potential of the Cloud First policy established over seven years ago.

The White House also needs to keep firmly to the ambitious agenda it outlined by the Office of American Innovation (OAI). As OAI noted in a recent report, “Major commercial cloud infrastructure providers offer excellent levels of functionality, cost effectiveness, and security because of their ability to aggregate demand across a broad range of customers.” The report calls on agencies to consolidate and modernize their IT infrastructures, emphasizing the use of commercial clouds. We agree with that assessment.

Several administrations have promised to modernize our government IT infrastructure, but few have made any progress. The Trump administration has the opportunity to cement real modernization as part of government culture if it stays true to its pro-commercial cloud vision.

Entrenched interests like to argue that we must protect outdated legacy IT systems, but in practice this does nothing more than bolster their bottom lines and disregards what’s best for taxpayers. Policymakers must reject efforts from interests groups and legacy providers who are looking to maintain a broken status quo on government IT spending.

The bottom line is commercial cloud offers the best solutions to governments that enable them to provide the best services to the public. The responsible thing to do is to modernize our government IT infrastructure.

Michael Beckerman is president & CEO of Internet Association, which represents the world’s leading internet companies. 

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