Event Examines Drive to Cloud Computing

In December, Casey Coleman, chief information officer, U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), spoke at the chapter's 11th annual IT Day focused on the Army. Coleman discussed GSA's leadership in moving to the cloud. In June 2011, the GSA moved approximately 17,000 users to the cloud-based Google email and collaboration platform with a projected five-year savings of $15 million. This move reduced waste/redundancy including decommissioning 45 servers. The yearly carbon savings is equivalent to taking 60 cars off the road. It also included cost avoidance of roughly $5 million to refresh legacy infrastructure. The move provides improved productivity, collaboration and security. This architecture supports telework, mobility and the new office space, enabling GSA employees to do their work in a secure environment on any device. The GSA's “Drive to the Cloud” enables the transformation of the headquarters at 1800 F Street with the needs of a mobile work force in mind.