VA Moves to the Cloud

VA Enterprise Cloud and Data Consolidation — Early Data Point to Cloud Savings

OIT’s IT modernization approach focuses on managing data, improving VA’s cybersecurity, digitizing VA’s business processes, decommissioning legacy systems, and migrating many VA services to the cloud, actions that will promote flexibility and cost savings at VA — savings that can be reinvested into services that directly enhance the Veteran experience.

Migrating key IT applications and services to the cloud is already generating real benefits for VA. OIT recently moved a very large, complex application called Identity Access Management (IAM) — tools that protect and authenticate Veteran and employee information — from a 3rd party IBM data center to the secure VA Enterprise Cloud (Microsoft Azure). The “cloud-first” move alone is expected to lead to approximately $11M potential cost avoidance annually, promoting better stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

Additionally, VA’s multi-year effort beginning in 2017 to upgrade its network infrastructure and consolidate data centers to support this “Cloud-first” strategy across the second largest network in the entire U.S. Federal Government, has resulted in the consolidation of 78* data centers in Fiscal Year 2018.

These measures contribute to further modernization-based cost avoidance from other VA efforts. Since the beginning of the year, OIT has realized $100 million in cost avoidance by implementing its fiduciary responsibilities outlined by the accountability and authority the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) extends to federal chief information officers.

Reflecting over the last year’s accomplishments, OIT’s Executive in Charge Camilo J. Sandoval said, “From the very day I embarked on this stewardship of VA’s IT organization, I challenged myself and my leadership team to consider our position at VA, to consider the enormous gravity of exercising prudence on behalf of the Veteran and the taxpayer — to take a hard look at the value we were getting from our IT spend.”