Commerce Department CIO Says SaaS Transition Worth High Spending

Andre Mendes, the Department of Commerce’s chief information officer, has shared that his organization is transitioning to cloud-based software-as-a-service because of new features despite high potential costs.

Mendes said in an interview that he wants information technology departments across the public and private sectors to “stop dealing with commodity stuff” and prioritize what brings value, Federal News Network reported Friday.

Some agencies, including the Commerce Department, have improved how they assess the costs and benefits of cloud migration through initiatives such as the Technology Business Management framework and financial operations. According to Mendes, his organization has made progress with utilizing TBM but is only starting to apply FinOps.

He said more than 90 percent of the Commerce Department’s information technology costs have been organized, making it easier to measure spending on operations and maintenance and development, modernization and enhancement.

Office of Management and Budget data indicates that the Commerce Department has spent $2.1 billion on O&M and $695 million on DME in fiscal year 2023.