Blog Series #1:  Building a Smarter, Faster and Cheaper Government

Moving State and Local Government to the Open Source and Cloud Technology Model

In the coming weeks, the Emergent blog will feature a series of topics discussing various open source and cloud technologies that state and local governments could adopt to save money and run more efficiently.  This introduction is part one of that series.

Moving the mechanics of government to technology solutions that benefit citizens in the ways of cost savings and increased access to services should be the defining theme born out of the current economic crisis.  Let’s face the facts; the citizens are not concerned with whether their government is running the latest big ticket software and hardware when they are applying for a vehicle registration renewal online, they just want it to be fast, secure, and not cost them increased fees to use the service.  Steps must be taken to curb the rapid costs of doing business by state and local governments and, with budgets being trimmed and programs being eliminated these days, there has never been a better time to look at more efficient ways to run these agencies more lean and with fewer big ticket items.

One such step that’s currently being evaluated within a wide range of government organizations is the migration from legacy email solutions to cloud based ones, such as Goggle Apps for Government.  The move to Google Apps brings some important technical advances in capability over the legacy environment, especially in the areas of mobility, collaboration and efficiency.  But perhaps even more important than the technical benefits are the improvements brought on by the cloud delivery model itself.  Since Google Apps is delivered in a software-as-a-service model, the organization can focus on the business of the government, aided by a modern, full featured collaboration platform, without a single worry as to the operations, maintenance, or availability of the platform itself.  The combined savings of the solution and the elimination of the IT capacity required to provide the solution means more funds are available to provide better services to the citizens they serve. 

State and local governments of all shapes and sizes have begun to realize the benefits of cloud computing models that allow them to focus on their core expertise while simply consuming IT on an as needed basis.