USA.gov will move to cloud computing

The General Services Administration has hired Terremark Worldwide to provide hosting, storage, and disaster recovery services for the Web portal USA.gov, GSA officials announced today. The company will provide the services to GSA via a cloud computing model where applications and data are delivered on the Internet, according to GSA.

Both USA.gov and its Spanish-language companion site, GobiernoUSA.gov, will move to cloud computing, the agency said.

GSA expects to reduce its Web management costs by more than 50 percent, according to Martha Dorris, GSA’s acting associate administrator for the Office of Citizen Services and Communications. GSA officials also expect cloud computing to establish a foundation for a new generation of Web 2.0 and other online services.

“Since this is still relatively new territory for the federal government, we look forward to widely sharing our experiences,” said Tom Freebairn, acting director of USA.gov Technologies

USA.gov and GobiernoUSA.gov, were launched in 2000 and 2003, respectively, and currently receive more than 140 million visits per year, according to GSA.

The company will provide its Enterprise Cloud platform to GSA under the contract, according to Terremark.