MAY 2019CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM8IN MY ViewA NEW VOYAGE TOWARDS GREATER EXPERIENCEloud computing has proven itself to be beneficial to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The NRC began its journey toward cloud computing seeking innovative ways to enhance service delivery performance and enable effective demand management practices, such as the ability to adjust service levels based on usage demand. Optimizing and iteratively right-sizing the agency's information technology service portfolio, and reducing the footprint of agency-operated datacenters were also targets. Therefore, the agency's initial implementation of cloud computing focused on e-mail, collaboration services, and high performance computing-areas that provide high benefits at relatively low risk.The NRC benefitted from lessons learned from other Federal agencies, such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, the Department of the Interior, the General Services Administration, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Federal Cloud Center of Excellence, an interagency group organized by the General Services Administration, was also a continuing source of information and aided our development of a cloud strategy and acquisition and project planning guidance. For better security and resource utilization, the NRC attempts to limit new cloud acquisitions to services that are authorized by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program.The NRC has recently implemented e-mail cloud services using Microsoft Corporation's Office 365, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, to replace the agency's on-premise legacy e-mail system. The new service reduces the agency's David NelsonDAVID NELSON, CIO, UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSIONC
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