Government in the cloud

Kevin Jackson, cloud blogger for Forbes, points out an interesting oxymoron with the government's strategy for moving the government infrastructure to the cloud. What intrigues me isn't that the government is transitioning itself to the cloud (as evidenced by data.gov, recovery.gov, and IT Dashboard), but it is the speed in which they are doing this. When you think government, do you normally think pushing the envelopes with newer technologies? I don't. However, I am extremely impressed with the government's aggressive attitude with this change. The fact that the most risk adverse organization in the United States is moving their infrastructure to the cloud speaks volumes to how much cost savings are gained by moving to the cloud and how much security can be gained in the cloud. That is the point that really hits home with me.

http://blogs.forbes.com/kevinjackson/2011/03/23/government-cloud-computing-on-forbes/