While cloud computing, or the ability to access information from the internet via servers no matter the user's location, can help customs administrations shrink their information technology budgets and speed up systems implementation, concerns with security, privacy and sovereignty of data exchanges keep those development efforts in slow gear.
"We see it as the vision for the future," said Charles R. Armstrong, chief information officer for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "But we have a lot to hammer out to actually reach that point."
Last year, the Obama administration instituted a "cloud first" policy for future technology implementation across federal agencies. This move is expected to save the U.S. government billions of dollars in IT development.
