The Department of Defense is Moving to the Cloud

Recently defense and intelligence agencies have begun to adopt cloud computing. This in part is due to the higher efficiency cloud computing provides and the cost saving benefits. However, there are a number of other reasons why the DoD is moving to the cloud.
Information management is an essential reason why the DoD is embracing cloud computing. For instance, the DoD relies heavily on accurate information for missions and other intelligence endeavors. Recently there have been studies that have shown that mission failures were caused by the human- centered document exploitation process, existence of data silos, and reliance on operationally proven filters and processes that are normally used to deal with the lack of decision time and computing power. Many times, the DoD had the important information but were unable to locate it and apply for a particular project or mission. Cloud computing uniquely resolves these problems.
Regarding the use of Data silos, the ability to search multi-petabyte data stores in milliseconds just about eliminates the need for data silos. The world’s biggest databases cannot be searched that quickly using the traditional relational database search method. In addition, the cloud allows for cheaper and larger storage and memory. The cloud improves data application efficiency and the retrieval of the data.
For intelligence professionals, they must be able to assess and interpret documents quickly and accurately. The time and resource intensive nature is greatly reduced when using cloud computing because of the precise search and analytic capabilities. It also enables real-time continuous processing of the flow of digital documents. By leveraging the power of a supercomputer with cloud techniques and technologies, critical decision time-lines can now be more easily and quickly met.
Cloud computing is becoming essential to national defense. Cloud computing offers DoD and Intelligence Community agencies the ability to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve collaboration.