Federal agencies are excitedly ‘upgrading’ to cloud computing through today’s launch of Apps.gov. The new website brings the promise of cloud IT services to all federal agencies, and the hip new app service includes everything ranging from professional business applications, cloud IT services, productivity apps, to the ever so popular social media apps! With many of the services being offered by either Google or salesforce.com, the movement to cloud computing is expected to reduce government operational costs as well as increase productivity within Federal agencies.

Cloud computing, in which information and software are stored in centralized units that can be accessed by any number of devices simultaneously, is the next big thing in IT according to a blog authored by Kundra. He went on to state that the website Apps.gov is an all encompassing site for cloud services, due to the way it consolidates services which are currently available. This is set to revolutionize the operation of IT and save taxpayers money.

A whopping $75 billion is spent by the government each year on information technology, says Kundra at the Whitehouse bog post. Yet the procurement processes and security procedures prevalent in this time and age can use up a lot of time that could have been otherwise used in other endeavors, and are even redundant at times. Kundra writes that the practices of the past have often ended up in an inefficiency across the federal government of purchased IT capabilities. Kundra adds, ‘These barriers will be addressed – it is a priority. We will improve the methods employed by the government in leveraging new technology’.

Due to release in the year 2010, Google is working on a “government cloud”, also known as a “G Cloud“. The program will work in much the same way that Google Apps works, though will be made to suit the US federal state and local governments. FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act – stating procedures on running federal government information applications) approval is currently being sought by Google for their Google Apps software. According to Matthew Glotzbach, director of product management for Google Enterprise, the process is close to done and soon we will know whether Google will be authorized to use FISMA.