Tag: federal

As federal fiscal year 2018 comes to an end and with budgets to spend and IT plans in place for 2019, the questions of “how and where do we start migrating mission-critical applications to the cloud?” still loom on many federal IT executives.

Many people are under the impression that cloud computing, which is marked by pay-as-you-go pricing, is impossible to buy with year-end funds. However, AWS has solutions to help you obligate year-end funds to secure a cloud future. The end of the federal government fiscal year is fast approaching. With budget left to spend before September 30, the clock is ticking for agencies to obligate their remaining FY2018 funds.

Over the past decade, consecutive administrations and the U.S. Congress have focused on IT modernization, issuing policies, directives, and passing legislation to help agencies move from legacy systems to modern commercial technologies. Policies that embrace cloud help save the government and taxpayer money and become more efficient, customer-focused, and secure. The following is a brief timeline of the U.S. government’s continued journey to the cloud.

Looking ahead to the future of federal cloud adoption and the steps government has already taken, John Hale, Chief of Cloud Services at Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), joined Doug VanDyke, Director of Federal Civilian and Nonprofits at Amazon Web Services (AWS), for a fireside chat at FCW’s recent Cloud Summit. They discussed how agencies have approached their cloud migrations and have taken advantage of the benefits the cloud brings.

One of the greatest advantages of cloud computing is enabling the government to use the latest innovations at a rapid pace. Cloud services can help government agencies deliver their mission more efficiently and modernize their infrastructure without a substantial upfront capital investment, allowing them to undertake more projects faster.

Cloud technology continues to be a major catalyst in how the federal government can achieve operational efficiencies and innovate on demand to advance their mission. Many government agencies, including the Department of Defense (DoD) and other agencies with mission-critical workloads, are using AWS’s utility-based cloud offerings to process, store, and transmit federal government data. As evidenced by the full range of our Authorizations-To-Operate, third-party attestations, and certifications, the AWS Cloud provides government customers with the only one-stop shop to handle Public, For Official Use Only (FOUO), Sensitive, Secret, and Top Secret workloads.

As federal IT leaders recognize the major benefits of cloud computing, some worry that the efficiencies of the cloud will result in sacrificing the workforce that has powered IT for years. In reality, though, federal government technology employees can experience greater empowerment with new technology tools that allow them to focus on strategic, innovative, mission-critical work. By equipping staff with cloud computing capabilities and the confidence to take on new responsibilities, government agencies invite fresh ideas, a place to test them, and the potential to solve complex issues affecting the environment in which they operate.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides patient care and federal benefits to Veterans and their dependents. The organization is split up into silos of health, benefit, and cemetery benefits; VA’s web presence was similarly fractured and users had difficulty interacting with VA online. The U.S. Digital Service team at VA looked across VA’s many products from the point of view of the Veteran. What do they want to do? How do they want to interact with VA? They started as a small team, iteratively building out features on Vets.gov.

U.S. federal customers move workloads of all sizes to the AWS Cloud. These projects range from single deliverables to complete data center migrations, frequently implemented across multiple AWS accounts for cost-containment and security purposes. Regardless of size though, our customers face common governance challenges.

Cloud technology is helping to modernize IT in support of good government. By moving to the consumption-based model of the cloud, government agencies can save money, innovate faster, and deliver capabilities that help achieve their mission.