The U.S. Government, despite its massive appetite for IT, doesn’t conjure images of a forward thinking or nimble entity when it comes to adopting technology – cutting-edge research arms notwithstanding.

But things are changing.

Kim Hart of The Washington Post reports on how IT firms are charting a technological course for the Government, which spends $33 billion for in the Washington D.C. area (nearly half of all IT spending).

Contractors that sell technology services are shifting their business strategies to embrace the latest buzzwords in government IT: cloud computing, open source and virtualization.

To industry outsiders, the terms may seem bizarre and contrived. But proponents say the services, which are often used together, can increase efficiency and save the government billions of dollars in IT costs.

More bang for our taxpayer buck? Yes, please!

Hart also cites survey figures from ScienceLogic revealing that “30 percent of government organizations are using some sort of virtualization, twice as many as a year ago.”

Source: The Washington Post