Hacked, pwnd and your tax money stolen in 5, 4, 3…
The federal government plans to shut 40 percent of its computer centers over the next four years to reduce its hefty technology budget and modernize the way it uses computers to manage data and provide services to citizens.
[...]
The federal government is the largest buyer of information technology in the world, spending about $80 billion a year. The Obama administration, in plans detailed Wednesday, is taking aim at some of that by closing 800 of its sprawling collection of 2,000 data centers. The savings, analysts say, will translate into billions of dollars a year and acres of freed-up real estate.
[...]
In an interview, Vivek Kundra, chief information officer for the federal government, explained that the data center consolidation was part of a broader strategy to embrace more efficient, Internet-era computing. In particular, the government is shifting to cloud computing, in which users use online applications like e-mail remotely, over the Internet. These cloud services can be provided by the government to many agencies or by outside technology companies.
Tapping cloud computing services, Mr. Kundra said, could save the government an additional $5 billion a year, reducing the need for individual government agencies to buy their own software and hardware.
#36 BTW, you have only proven that you don’t have to go to college to be an idiot. Just like you.
interglacial,
He. he. That quote reminds me of Alan Greenspan!
But does it make him wrong?
Is a government workers email account better in the “cloud” or on a server?
For example — if you have a weak password, it’s easy for someone to steal your email.
But, on a server, if an IT contractor has a weak password, it is easy to steal everyone’s email.
Which is worse?
(Am I even right about this? I am not trying to start a fight here. I really don’t know. )
>> # 35 ECA said, on July 21st, 2011 at 10:57 am
>> DO YOU REALLY WANT SAVINGS?? GOTO LINUX…
This is the argument that Richard Clarke makes in hisbook.
He argues that classified government computers and networks should be non-standard and, thus, harder to hack by Chinese kids on government stipends. This could be accomplished by modifying Linux.
The computers in government offices could also be Linux-boxes, stripped down to only essential services, thus making them less vulnerable to hacking.
(For example, if they had been made gov’t computers incompatible with Walmart-bought thumb drives, the Wikileak may never have happened.)
But, Microsoft gets the contracts because they have the high priced lobbyists. Nobody makes big campaign donations on behalf of Linux.
(I read it a year ago, so I may be getting this a little wrong.)