Former e-gov administrator launches cloud best practices site

A government plan to save 15 percent to 20 percent of the federal information research budget through cloud computing is an achievable goal, the nation's former e-government administrator told Nextgov on Tuesday.

The way they manage data

But those savings can be realized only if agencies commit to reforming the way they manage data and processes, not simply the research that houses that data, said Karen Evans, who ran the Office of Managements and Budget's information innovation shop while the Bush administration and was often called the nation's unofficial chief information officer.

Evans is one of the major forces behind Safegov.org, an online storehouse for articles and information on cloud computing strategy for the federal, state and local governments that officially launched Tuesday.

The newly launched site includes an interview with Evans about the OMB plan to transition in broad outline one-fourth of the $80 billion federal IT budget to cloud computing by 2015. It as well features an article by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, another founding member of Safegov.org, on data sovereignty in the cloud.

The remainder of the site consists normally of aggregated articles on cloud issues by research-focused publications, including Nextgov.