If the Feds endorse cloud computing will you follow?

The federal government made a big splash with the launch of Apps.gov, a storefront designed to ease procurement headaches acquiring software and save money.

U.S. CIO Vivek Kundra is into the cloud. The launch of Apps.gov, as detailed Tuesday, is aimed toward agencies and department that need to innovate on the cheap---assuming you can call an IT budget of $75 billion a year cheap.

Assessing all the moving parts the real importance of Apps.gov will be as a case study. If the government---arguably a monolithic, slow enterprise riddled with legacy apps---can move to cloud apps why can't your company?

There's also another ripple effect here: Technology suppliers will increasingly have to play the software as a service game. As currently constructed players like Google and Salesforce.com are dominating the Apps.gov categories.

Cloud apps aren't going to replace all of your software, but the feds are trying to show that you can replace more than you think.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com