DHS establishes potential cloud computing model for other agencies
Wednesday, October 05, 2011 4:21:15 PM
As a result of a faltering economy and a record high national debt, the U.S. government has turned to new technology as a means of alleviating some of its IT costs. Multiple federal agencies have already adopted the cloud, while many continue to fear the potential security risks that may accompany implementation of these new IT services.
Tech Target recently published an article explaining that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched a cloud computing strategy to help reduce some of the fears common in high risk departments, while working to strengthen general security practice upon adoption of the service.
"We hope to take more advantage of public cloud-based services as we get more comfortable with the security model and feel comfortable that we can start to migrate some of our sensitive data to a public cloud," Richard Spires, the chief information officer of the DHS, told the website. "Right now, we essentially want to cut our teeth on using our outward facing websites since there's no sensitive data on those sites."
According to the Federal Times, the General Services Administration announced it intends to save more than $15 million over the next five years by switching its email services to cloud-based systems.
-McAfee Cloud Security
