The federal government spends more than $75 billion annually on information technology. Due to its size and critical mission requirements, feds have often lagged behind the commercial sector in embracing new technologies. With cloud computing, however, the federal government is leading the way.

From the earliest days of his Administration, President Obama along with his technology team focused on the importance of cloud computing as a key innovation that could reduce energy consumption and enhance agility within U.S. federal agencies. Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra laid out a vision for cloud computing that addresses the “Five Pillars” of the government’s IT agenda: citizen engagement, reducing the cost of government operations, driving innovation, transparency, and cybersecurity.

Many other governments around the world are getting on the cloud now. They are interested in the United States’ lessons learned and future vision. In a short time, federal agencies collaboratively created a formal definition for cloud computing; launched the first government cloud storefront, Apps.gov; created a federal cloud computing program and governance structure; and began addressing critical success factors such as security, portability and interoperability, and education and awareness.

Cloud computing is truly a game-changing development. A few examples:

• The cloud’s scalability implies that government agencies no longer need worry about reaching the limits of their digital capacity. By transitioning to the cloud, agencies tap into an infrastructure that is as flexible as their needs are varied. 
• Cloud solutions encourage cross-agency collaboration and help government perform better for the American people.
• The federal government’s commitment to cloud computing signals to private industry that smart technology solutions are the future of government.

The General Services Administration experienced many of these benefits by moving the federal portal, USA.gov, to the cloud. GSA wanted to reduce costs and add scalability and flexibility to USA.gov in order to meet emerging citizen needs. Using a traditional IT procurement, it would likely have required six months to upgrade USA.gov to keep up with growing traffic, at a cost of approximately $2.47 million per year. In a cloud environment, GSA is able to perform upgrades in one day at an annual cost of $806,000. The transition significantly lowers GSA’s costs and improves the scalability of USA.gov, saving taxpayers $1.7 million annually.

Of course, the private sector is a vital partner helping the federal government realize the benefits of cloud computing. Companies such as those participating in the FedScoop Cloud Computing Shoot Out will play a critical role in advancing innovation and overcoming challenges. Cloud computing has a bright future, and today’s event is one more step in that direction.

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Casey Coleman is chief information officer for the U.S. General Services Administration.  She is a co-chair for the Federal CIO Council’s cloud computing Executive Steering Committee.

When I became the Chief Information Officer at GSA in mid-2007, I spoke with many of the OCIO team to understand how I could help my new staff succeed. The big issue that I heard was improved communications. We had recently undergone a reorganization, consolidating many regional IT positions into the central CIO organization and almost doubling the size of the OCIO. These new team members across the country did not feel that they were connected to their new home organization and didn’t know about news and developments that affected them.

To address this need, I started an internal GSA CIO blog in September 2007. GSA already has an excellent internal web site, InSite, but it serves a different purpose, primarily as a source of longer-term reference materials. With the blog, I found a communications tool that could be directed specifically to the CIO organization and be used as a way to share information in near-real time. In my first post, I announced that the blog would be “a location where my direct reports and I will post news and information relevant to the issues we are facing here in Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) and GSA.” I encouraged readers, as members of the OCIO community, to read the blog, to comment on postings, and to read the comments of co-workers. Later we expanded the usage so that anyone within OCIO could originate new material on the blog.

Since the launch, I have continued to post information about two or three times a week. Topics include items such as: the minutes of our weekly senior staff meetings, copies of technical briefings, information on the presidential transition, and my informal observations on technology trends or on conferences I have attended. For example, when I attended the Gartner Symposium in October, I reported on Gartner’s top 10 technologies for 2009. One of those, client virtualization, generated a lot of interest as it pertains to GSA’s support for teleworking, a top priority for the agency. As a consequence of that initial posting we have had follow-on briefings from analysts and industry experts and are studying the feasibility of a client virtualization proof of concept. I have also used the blog to pass on interesting sites such as public blogs on leadership and ethics, and to remind staff of training requirements.

There are no restrictions on topics or comments, other than that they be of interest to the CIO organization and use an appropriate and professional tone. I started with three objectives: improve communications (and thus teamwork and morale), give employees a forum for communicating back to me and the senior staff, and recognize success stories and outstanding contributions publicly.

So almost a year and a half later, how well have we met those objectives? The GSA CIO Blog has proven to be a real success story. It is a source used across my organization for reliable information on what is happening at senior management levels and foster continuing education on emerging technologies and management and leadership issues. It has a robust readership, and interest continues to grow. I will also measure its effectiveness when we receive our employee engagement survey results soon, to see if OCIO employee satisfaction has risen due to the blog.

Surprisingly, however, there are few comments posted in response to my blogs. It is not used as a discussion forum as I had hoped; many people read it, but few respond online. My readers make comments to me in person on what they have read, rather than reply online for all to see. Staff use it as a way to start conversations with me one-on-one. What this tells me is that we are changing the culture, not just introducing a new tool, and culture change takes time. I believe that social media tools such as blogs will help us to develop a more connected and empowered workforce over time, and will aid our recruiting and retention efforts.

I have not made any special efforts to force comments or readership. Over time, the blog will mature and evolve within its own timetable. However, I am directing more and more communications to the blog, and rarely send out group emails any more. If you want to know what is going on with personnel changes, new policies, organizational developments or weekly news updates, check the blog, don’t send me a question via email!

I am also about to launch an external blog called “Around the Corner” that is focused on the theme of innovation. My first entries are just being posted, so I do not yet have any information on readership or comments. Clearly, a public-facing forum requires a great deal more review and preparation prior to launch, and indeed the launching of the site has been a multi-step process. In the spring of 2008 I began to research topics, get the appropriate clearances, develop a usage policy, and identify the standards for launch. Mine will be the first GSA agency blog, so I worked with our General Counsel’s Office to establish an agency-wide blog policy. Thanks to work done at the State Department for its DipNote blog (blogs.state.gov) and GSA’s own Gov Gab site (blog.usa.gov), we were able to craft a simple, direct policy that is applicable to all GSA staff who want to start a blog. I also worked with our Office of Communications to get the look and feel that met GSA standards. By the way, GSA’s Gov Gab is a terrific source for information and services available to the general public from the entire federal government.

My experience in using blogging as a management tool has been very positive, and I would encourage those who are considering blogs and similar tools to jump in. Whether internal or external, blogs can complement other communications channels, help foster a more productive work environment, and aid in recruiting and retaining talented employees who want to be part of a top-notch organization.