State of Michigan (Department of Technology Management and Budget)

Announced Project: MiCloud

In March 2010, Michigan’s Department of Information Technology consolidated with the State’s Department of Management and Budget. The new Department of Technology, Management & Budget (DTMB) is now building a full array of services to provide across governments and the private sector. Michigan is moving toward leveraging cloud-based solutions to provide clients with rapid, secure, and lower cost services though a program dubbed “MiCloud.”

One key area of current action is the State’s strategic investment in storage virtualization technologies, expected to go live in October 2010. Michigan is actively piloting MiCloud “Storage for Users” and “Storage for Servers” as internal government cloud functions delivered by DTMB. The consumption expectation is more than 250 terabytes in the first year of operation at a projected storage cost that is 90 percent lower than today’s lowest-cost storage tier. MiCloud provides self-service and automated delivery within 10 minutes of submitting an online request. The following table expresses projected savings based on migration rates. It is important to note that this low-cost option represents a service alternative that is only appropriate for data that do not require 24x7 availability or real-time, block-level replication.

The State of Michigan’s 2010-2014 strategic plan also outlines critical future investments in virtual server hosting and process automation. The State is in the proof-of-concept phase for the MiCloud “Hosting for Development” and “Process Orchestrator” functions in the internal government cloud. The hosting for development function automates the delivery of virtual servers within 30 minutes of submitting an online request. Michigan will also explore a hybrid cloud to deliver a more complex Application Platform as a Service (APaaS). The process orchestrator function enables agency business users, regardless of IT skill level, to create and test simple process definitions. Business users will be able to publish processes and related forms to the service catalog and over time analyze related metrics. Ultimately, the shift to cloud computing will allow Michigan to improve services to citizens and business while freeing up scarce capital, staff resources, and IT assets for critical investments.