Two-thirds of federal email is now in the cloud
Federal agencies are making progress in moving their email services to the cloud.
About 66 percent of federal CFO Act inboxes are now “serviced by cloud-based solutions,” according to a progress update on the President’s Management Agenda Cross-Agency Priority goal for IT modernization released this month. That’s up 5 percent since last quarter, the report shows.
Email is usually the first IT service an organization moves to the cloud. So progress in this area serves as a sort of barometer for agencies’ progress in leaving legacy systems behind in favor of the cloud.
Quite a few departments have moved their email entirely to the cloud: Transportation, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the General Services Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and U.S. Agency for International Development.
Likewise, the Departments of Commerce and the Interior as well as the National Science Foundation are all closing in on 100 percent cloud email and at least meeting the individual agency target of 95 percent for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018.
There are a few agencies weighing the rest down, the report shows: The Social Security Administration and the Office of Personnel Management both reported that none of their email services are in the cloud. Treasury isn’t much better, reporting 5 percent cloud email.
The administration’s goal is to have 75 percent of inboxes in the cloud by the fourth quarter in fiscal 2019, and 95 percent by the same time in 2019.
Overall, the progress report shows that the administration is making progress around its IT modernization goals, citing the second round of awards of the Technology Modernization Fund; issuance of major IT policy, like the Cloud Smart and Trusted Internet Connections updates; and the launch of the Federal Cybersecurity Reskilling Academy.
