Ross Wilkers
Government agencies can meet the seemingly different goals of cutting budgets and growing capabilities of information technology infrastructures by implementing disruptive technologies such as cloud computing and mobile devices, according to George Newstrom of Dell.
Newstrom, executive director and general manager of Dell’s federal government defense and national security business, uses a study conducted by IDC Government Insights to describe this “third platform” of technologies in a blog post for Dell’s corporate site.
The “third platform” of technologies is the newest step in IT’s evolution as a tool for enterprises, Newstrom writes.
According to Newstrom, the third platform also includes social business applications and analytics tools intended to help government entities handle big data.
One challenge government faces in adopting these new technologies is to consolidate older IT systems because of technical limitations and the desire to retain local control over IT infrastructures, Newstrom writes.
Newstrom points to the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative in 2010 as a move aimed to push agencies to adopt third platform technologies and to sequestration under the Budget Control Act of 2011 as a pressure point for agencies to accelerate that adoption.
Cloud email could help save around $1 million per year and the government could also realize $20 billion in savings, or one-fourth of its current IT budget, if it moved to new IT systems that handle third platform technology.
For more of Newstrom’s insights and perspective on the issue, click here to read his full piece.
