The Government’s As-a-Service Future
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As federal agencies embrace cloud services, they are considering other pay-as-you-go options.
The adage that technology evolves faster than government can buy it is quickly becoming an outdated notion, largely due to the influx of as-a-service offerings now available to federal customers. A decade ago, normal business practices for IT delivery dictated mountains of software disks and server racks to keep pace with growing amounts of data. The advent of cloud-based as-a-service offerings—including infrastructure-, platform- and software-as-a-service options—has flipped IT delivery on its head.
In this ebook, Nextgov examines how several federal agencies are turning to pay-as-you-go services to deliver IT and provide various mission-critical services. The Air Force, for example, is using new contracting authorities to meet its enterprise IT-as-a-service effort, which aims to significantly reduce IT management performed by tens of thousands of airmen. In addition, the CIA plans to continue a cloud journey it began in 2013 with a next-generation cloud computing contract worth “tens of billions” of dollars across the intelligence community. As-a-service offerings will be foundational to the contract, providing avenues for multiple companies to build the IT ecosystem.
Meanwhile, the government’s turn to as-a-service offerings is not without challenges. The government must address cybersecurity concerns, while industry must both innovate to remain competitive and meet strengthening cybersecurity standards.