US Government jumps into the cloud - will the UK follow?

Government IT projects are not known for agility or cost savings. So it is with some surprise that U.S. government agencies have already leapt into the cloud. The primary motivation is increase efficiency, improve security and most importantly considering the current US economy is to save money.

Recovery.gov, the government website where Americans have access to data related to Recovery Act spending has officially moved to a cloud computing infrastructure. The switch went live at 9:48 p.m. on April 26, using Amazon’s EC2 service, according to the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which oversees Recovery.gov

The cloud move allegedly saves $420,000 in fiscal year. But there will also be other savings too, the agency said, noting that there is no longer a concern about or expense of an underlying data center or computer equipment.

With the arrival of a new the equally cash strapped UK government we will be watching if there are similar moves in the UK (and across the EU).

A reader points us to a story where UK universities are already moving to the cloud University of Westminster Deploys Google Apps

“As a result, 25,000 students and staff at the University of Westminster now use Google Apps Education Edition — saving the university £1 million in the process“.