FEMA Takes Replatform Route in Systems’ Cloud Migration

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has migrated about 60 percent of its applications and workloads to the cloud, with the transition expected to accelerate further in 2024, said Charlie Armstrong, FEMA chief information officer. 

In an interview on Federal News Network’s Ask the CIO podcast, Armstrong noted that the cloud migration of the remaining 40 percent of applications will take a few different paths, including the approach on the agency’s training systems. According to the FEMA official, the remaining workloads not yet ready for cloud migration will be replatformed, Federal News Network reported Friday.

Aside from the FEMA training system, which Armstrong stressed is a low-risk operation, the agency also plans to migrate two or three other systems that he did not disclose for security reasons to a newer platform.

The FEMA systems migrated to the cloud recently include the National Flood Insurance Program and the new FEMA Grants Outcomes. Cloud transition has also started in the modernization of FEMA’s financial systems, while the migration of about 20 other grant programs is planned in 2024, Armstrong disclosed. 

In June 2023, the FEMA CIO told a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee emerging threats subcommittee hearing that the agency had already migrated 19 grant types to its new cloud system.