Government Forecast: Partly-cloudy with a chance of savings

A new report issued by MeriTalk, the federal government's information technology network, paints the cloud in a favorable light. According to the company, federal agencies are set to adopt the computing platform wholesale.

The transition to virtualized data storage will be done in increments, as the company reports that email is the mostly likely application to make the first step. Forty-two percent of responding governmental chief information officers are considering the system for this service.

The report, which was underwritten by VMWare, is entitled the Federal Cloud Weather Report. It finds that the federal government may be able to save as much as $14 billion in one year with cloud technology.

"Cloud computing in its many forms truly has the potential to transform government. We applaud the federal government’s leadership and dedication to IT innovation − and critically, its recognition of the cloud’s immense savings potential, whether private, public or hybrid" said Aileen Black, vice president of government sales for VMware.

The federal migration to the cloud may happen soon. According to Forbes, the Pentagon has already implemented virtualized data systems for its daily operations. The Department of Defense is confident in the cloud's ability to meet stringent security demands required by the facility.