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How Governments Do More With Less

At its core, government’s purpose is to serve its citizens. A constantly changing world complicates this simple idea with increasing global interconnectivity, cultural and societal revolutions, and technological advancements. To keep up, governments must evolve the way they do business if they’re to meet the needs of those they serve. But without similarly dynamic technology underlying its services, government won’t be able to adapt quickly or economically.

In June 2011, the U.S. Department of the Interior released an IT Transformation Strategic Plan that outlines how the government intends to leverage technology to save up to $500 million by 2020. Through an IT transformation, it expects to deliver better service at less cost by greatly reducing the number of data centers and servers, switching to a single email system, and transitioning to the cloud with cloud-based electronic forms and records, as well as content management.

The Interior’s plan addresses the fact that as demand on computing capacity has increased, the government’s capacity to respond has not. Lack of resources can force reactive IT solutions that maintain current systems, rather than drive innovation for improved services. But now more than ever, governments must find ways to do more with less. They can thrive, despite the economy, if they shift to smarter computing systems designed and optimized to handle the never-ending churn of technological and societal change.

The Department of Interior has outlined a path toward smarter computing that can better meet demands and enable innovation for large-scale change, all at a cost-savings. Its plan and other successful government initiatives across the nation reflect three essential characteristics: They’re designed for big data, tuned to the task and managed in a cloud.

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