The first justification often given for a federal agency to implement a cloud computing solution is the savings they’ll realize in their IT budgets.

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Now comes a study from IDC – a reputable industry research firm – that quantifies this notion. As reported on Nextgov.com, this study – commissioned by Amazon Web Services - analyzed 11 organizations of various sizes and concluded that they spent on average 70% less by moving to the cloud.

To counter this argument, this article also referenced a different study - commissioned by CSC Corporation – whose participants did not see substantial savings.

Of course, the pros and cons of moving to the cloud extend past the financial aspect. Agencies have seen a reduction in their time to deploy new applications. But, on the other hand, some agencies who have unique IT needs or who hold highly sensitive data have been cautious in their move to the cloud.

As always, please visit wjla.com/bizgov for links relating to this story. I’m Steve Vito of UpsonVito.

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