With sweeping budget proposals now on the table from President Obama and House Republicans, the debate over federal spending is gaining momentum this week in Washington. Not surprisingly, there are diverging views on many of the particulars in the budget. But all agree in principle that the fiscal situation demands belt-tightening — and all agree spending must produce real value. That’s why the administration’s new Federal Cloud Computing Strategy is so important. As unveiled by US CIO Vivek Kundra, it would target as much as a quarter of the government’s $80 billion IT budget to cloud solutions, capturing more value by increasing the government’s operational performance and improving public services. (more…)