How the Cloud Can Bring Expenditure Agility to Agency Budgets

A clear presidential push becomes apparent reading the FY2013 budget. The White House is calling for Federal agencies, health departments among those, to shift IT budgets from a capital expenditure basis to one built on operational spending. In their words, the generation of a “more agile, operational focus” – and the cloud computing model is one way of embracing that expenditure agility, IT-wise.

The MeriTalk report, ‘The Color of Money,’ underwritten by Brocade, a network solutions company, aggregated responses from 102 Federal IT managers and 102 IT Federal finance professionals to outline their level of preparation for the shift, and what steps they think it will require.

Most strikingly, the study found that 70 percent of Federal financial professionals see value in the CapEx to OpEx transition for IT, however only 36 percent of IT managers are considering the change. “Federal financial professionals believe that OpEx for IT makes good sense,” the report says...