In effort to trim $1.5 billion from IT, Navy proposes placing most non-classified data into commercial cloud offering.

In its ongoing efforts to attenuate network and IT infrastructure costs, the U.S. Navy desires to move most of its non-classified, publically available data to a commercially provided cloud, cut the variety of Navy data centers from 150 to twenty-five, and eliminate redundant costs including duplicative software applications.

The move reflects the Navy’s want to cut $1.3 billion from its IT budget, and cloud-based data storage is a price-effective option, Navy CIO Terry Halvorsen told executives at a central authority IT event in Washington D.C. on March 13. a considerable portion of those savings would come from consolidating the Navy’s data centers and adopting cloud computing and virtualization for many of the service’s non-classified data, Halvorsen said, adding that the Navy would continue to maintain mission-sensitive and demanding information in its classified databases.

But because the Navy closes data facilities, the info itself would require analysis for security and efficiency purposes. Besides defending against potential data breaches, the Navy desires to trim redundant and obsolete applications from its databases.

[Federal agencies are shifting beyond the 2010 cloud-first mandate. Read Cloud First: End Of The start For Federal Agencies?]

Halvorsen said the Navy would also make a concerted effort to shut aging buildings which are inefficient to heat and funky and costly to function. “We own numerous old buildings,” Halvorsen observed. By trimming back at the variety of facilities and adopting virtualization, the service expects it could also trim the collection of people required to run its data facilities and save on labor costs.

While the Navy plans to eliminate older software, equipment, and facilities, Halverson said that the Navy will retain some useful and effective technologies that meet mission needs but that won’t be applicable in a cloud environment. “Simply because things are older doesn’t suggest their value is less,” he mentioned.

According to Halvorsen, the Navy must move about 50% of its non-classified data into some reasonably commercial storage system as a part of its cloud migration plans. Public-facing information might be moved to an Amazon cloud managed system.

The Navy also plans to rethink its continuity of operations (COOP) sites and plans. “Most data doesn’t need the extent of backup [that the Navy currently maintains],” Halvorsen said. Besides time-sensitive, mission-critical information, much of the service’s data would not require immediate restoration in relation to power loss or disaster. For this non-sensitive data, he said, recovery times of between 72 hours and five days are acceptable. Adjusting backup requirements would mean the Navy could use more remote and not more costly data storage facilities.

Halverson believes moving a element of the Navy’s data to the cloud would also lower the price of securing the info. While it can become challenging to pinpoint exactly where data resides at any given time, Halvorsen said, knowing exactly how the safety layer works has greater importance.

Halvorsen also contends that even on mission-critical classified networks, the Navy must remember that data is perishable and ought to be handled accordingly. The Navy and its commercial partners must do a much better job assigning different risk factors and determining the mandatory security to go along with sorts of information, he said, noting that the useful lifespan of a few varieties of tactical information lasts only minutes.

Find out how a central authority program is putting cloud computing at the fast track to raised security. Also within the Cloud Security issue of InformationWeek Government: Defense CIO Teri Takai on why FedRAMP helps everyone.

Henry Kenyon is a contributing writer to InformationWeek Government. He has covered Government IT and Defense markets since 1999 for quite a few publications including Government Computer News, Federal Computer Week, AFCEA’s Signal Magazine and AOL Government. View Full Bio

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