New Government Sheriff In Town Should Help Startups
Obama's chief information officer, Vivek Kundra, was at NASA Ames this week to lay out the government's plans for cloud computing. He's making some big changes, starting with the admission that the federal government wastes billions of dollars a year on information technology. Federal CIOs have been motivated to build data centers and acquire hardware and software to protect their turf, it seems -- the Department of Homeland Security alone has over 23 data centers, Kundra said. From 2000 to 2006, energy consumption by the federal government doubled, and uncoordinated purchases of hardware and software have caused cybersecurity problems because they give spies and hackers more entry points into government networks. Also interesting, though, is the number of venture-funded startups that are now offering social media software to all federal agencies over the government's new online store, apps.gov, which also opened this week.
