Jun 16, 2011

Read Obama’s Lips: No New Websites

Campaign Has Also Sent IT Applications to the Cloud

[caption id="attachment_393" align="alignright" width="300" caption="health care"]

[/caption] The Obama administration announced Monday that it has ordered a freeze on the creation of new federal websites, effective immediately. That means that every government agency will have to cull its online departments of redundancy departments. The goal is to eliminate or consolidate 25 percent of the federal government’s 2,000 existing .gov domains, under which exist approximately 24,000 websites, in the next few months. The move is but a portion of the administration’s Campaign to Cut Waste,¹ which ties into the Accountable Government Initiative. The initiative proposes to cut inefficiency and waste across the federal government. Examples include the proposed streamlining of 55 highway programs into five programs, the desired reduction of government administrative expenses by $2 billion, and the shedding of unnecessary federal real estate. Federal agencies are also cutting costs by moving their IT applications to the cloud. Already, the Department of Agriculture is set to move 120,000 users to the cloud—an estimated savings of $27 million over five years. The General Services Administration expects to cut costs by $15 million in a five-year period by moving 17,000 users to the cloud. The White House is not using The Small Business Authority for its cloud needs---but you should. If the cloud can save two federal agencies an estimated $42 million over five years, it could probably save you a couple of bucks. For more information, visit: 1. “White House Launches Campaign to Cut Waste: Vice President to Take on Making Government More Accountable” 2. “Accountable Government Initiative: The Obama Administration’s Campaign to Cut Waste and Improve Results (June 2011—Update)” 3. “TooManyWebsites.gov”