Salesforce.com: 'Cloud Computing Debate Is Over' in Washington

With the federal government climbing on board with the cloud revolution, the important questions for service and application providers turn to issues surrounding security, architecture.

CIO, by Kenneth Corbin

In the federal government, which carries a roughly $80 billion annual IT budget, the question of cloud computing is no longer a question of "if," but rather "how," and "how soon."

"The cloud computing debate is over," Dan Burton, senior vice president of public policy with Salesforce.com, declared at a government technology conference here on Thursday. "First of all it's over in the public sector and government, what we focus on here, because there is no vendor, there is no integrator, there is no consultant out there who says the cloud is not the way to go. So everyone realizes that it is inevitable that the federal government, just like state and local governments, will shift to cloud platforms, cloud infrastructures, cloud applications, and that that train has left the station."