Helping the IRS Adopt Cloud Computing

Background

The IRS is always looking for ways to improve the delivery of their services while reducing cost. As more and more commercial companies moved their IT services to cloud computing, the IRS became very interested in how they could take advantage of the technology. The IRS’s seasonal schedule of peak demands lent well to an environment where they could purchase computing power only when they needed it.

Challenge

While smaller companies were quick to make use of the cost saving benefits of cloud computing, few large-scale businesses became early adopters. It was even rarer that a federal agency utilized the capability. IRS leadership knew that cloud computing was the future and thus needed to begin the process of evaluating how they could make best use of the technology. The IRS wanted hands-on reassurances that their essential services could migrate to the cloud.

Services

The Solution

IRS Enterprise Architecture decided to conduct a proof of concept that would demonstrate that an essential IRS service could make use of cloud computing while reducing the government’s total cost of ownership. At the time, one of the newest and most advanced computer systems at the IRS was the ACA Information Returns system developed by Northrop Grumman with assistance from STP’s engineering and subject matter experts. Working directly for the IRS, STP teamed with Northrop Grumman and Amazon Web Services to integrate the IRS’s security system with the AIR system in the AWS cloud. The team was able to prove that systems as complex as AIR and the IRS security system could migrate to the cloud and reduce the IRS’s annual investment. This helped begin the process of the IRS adopting cloud technologies to support their enterprise.