U.S. Army joining the cloud

In an effort to save money on data storage, the U.S. Army plans to move its email into cloud services. The Army has entered into an agreement with the Defense Information Systems Agency to provide cloud email and calendar services, said Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson to Federal News Radio.

Sorenson says the main reason for the change is to save taxpayer money. “We're paying well over $100 for the seat we operate today,” he said. “As we move in to the DISA cloud, that cost will drop to something less than $39 per seat. So, there are significant savings that the Army will accrue.”

Over 1.4 million unclassified Army network users will be included in the changeover. An addition 200,000 users of the Army’s secret networks will also switch. “As we put more people in the cloud, the identify management helps fill out the global access list, so that the enterprise email truly becomes an enterprise,” said Sorensen.

The federal government has been increasing its cloud computing presence lately. Recently, the government launched its own cloud app store, Apps.gov, which will provide cloud services to federal and state government agencies.