Alexandria and Arlington are going “into the cloud.” Arlington is in the midst of moving its employees’ email accounts to “cloud computing,” the newest wave of information technology that allows data to be stored in bulk at far-away servers, rather than stored locally, and accessed through the Internet.
Alexandria just finished moving its employees over to the cloud — the first jurisdiction in Virginia to do so.
The two governments are now a step ahead of the federal government, which has been dragging its feet on the new trend because of security concerns.
Alexandria and Arlington consider Microsoft, their new cloud computing host, a safer bet than their own servers.
“Could somebody hack these sites? Yes. Am I worried? Yes. But the chance of somebody hacking us rather than them is higher,” said Arlington’s Chief Information Officer Jack Belcher.
Belcher listed cost savings and emergency backup as major benefits of the move. Now, if snowpocalypse should hit Arlington again, county employees will be able to access their email and work from home. In addition, Belcher estimates the county is paying $4.50 per email user per month, rather than $6.50.
Arlington has few other things in the cloud already — such as payroll — and plans to move more.
“Arlington County’s website is actually is a resident of New Jersey,” Belcher said.
Alexandria is advertising for requests for proposals that use cloud technology.
“It’s here now, but it’s the way of the future,” Alexandria Chief Information Officer Tom Trobridge said. “It’s generally cheaper, it puts the responsibility to maintain the software on the owner and not the municipal government, and it just makes it easier for us.”
