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Cloud Computing: DoD Mandates a Migration to the Private-Sector Cloud
The FY2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes detailed instructions for how Congress wishes the DoD to fund IT initiatives, and it contains specific instructions that affect how agencies under the DoD can employ cloud services.
Many of the instruction provided in the act are of a generic nature and not at all unexpected, such as:
- The DoD CIO must approve any IT technology or Data Center to be used by an agency under the DoD
But other instructions are quite specific. Section 2867 of the NDAA, Data Servers and Centers, for example, specifies that agencies under the DoD must submit plans which demonstrate how they will be able to do the following:
- Reduce the square footage of data centers
- Reduce the number of different applications used across DoD agencies
- Reduce the labor costs for operating data centers
- Reduce the number of personnel manning DoD data centers
- Reduce power and cooling utility costs
- Increase the DoD shared-agency usage of data centers
Specific to cloud computing, the act specifies that the DoD must do the following:
- Develop a strategy for cloud computing
- Develop a strategy for desktop, laptop and mobile device virtualization
- Develop a strategy to migrate defense data and government applications to private cloud computing services
- Develop a strategy to use private-sector data centers and cloud computing services
- Develop metrics to report on data center cost, capacity and energy efficiency
- Develop a strategy to transition DoD-owned data centers to just-in-time modular technology
Jerry Bishop, IT consultant, commented on a posting for the on-line magazine Internet Evolution, saying that “The implications of Congress having a specific interest in cloud computing will certainly be significant. Executing a focused strategy to use cloud computing and consolidate the DoD infrastructure will pour billions of dollars into the cloud services market. Massive defense spending on cloud services should lead to more innovation and more mature cloud offerings — to the benefit of all consumers of such services. The DoD spending should also lead to better unit costs for service providers, which in turn should offer better pricing for the rest of the market.”
