U.S. Navy Issues New Cloud Computing Policy

Cloud computing is truly earning its stripes: The latest institution to call on the cloud to cut costs and put its security features to the test is none other than the U.S. Navy.

The U.S. Navy will shift its low-impact IT systems and mission functions to commercial cloud providers, “unless a more cost-effective DOD solution is identified,” said Navy CIO Terry Halvorsen.

The move is part of a memo that Halvorsen recently signed, providing guidelines for the use of commercial cloud services throughout the department, according to an article on Forbes.com. It comes after a pilot program that migrated the Navy Secretary’s public-facing portal to a commercial cloud services provider. That pilot program has paved the way for the Navy to move publicly releasable information to a commercial cloud environment, according to a release from the department.

“The experience the [Navy Department] gains through initial application of cloud computing, in conjunction with security requirements, will inform future decisions on how to best apply this technology,” a Navy cloud computing fact sheet stated.

The Navy will now move forward in broader applications of cloud services.

In order to increase efficiency and find cost savings, the U.S. Navy will move forward to put in place capable cloud computing solutions that meet mission and security requirements.

According to the memo from the U.S. Navy, “the decision to host the data in a commercial cloud environment resulted from an analysis of several factors, the most important being the type of data stored in the portal, hosting costs and security requirements.”

At a recent Information Technology Conference in San Diego, Terry Halvorsen, the Navy’s CIO, and Janice Haith, Deputy CIO, discussed the enterprise initiatives being implemented to leverage and streamline Navy IT capabilities to meet the $2 billion budget cut over the next five years. “The money has been removed,” Halvorsen said. “We need to specifically look at IT as an enabler and also look at the business processes that, in combination, will lead to cost savings.”

Patrick Burke is a writer and editor based in the greater New York area and occasionally blogs for Rackspace Hosting