GAO finds repeated federal cloud procurement hurdles on cost and guidance

A new Government Accountability Office review says federal cloud modernization still faces procurement hurdles that can affect how efficiently agencies buy and manage cloud services. In a report published June 23, 2026, GAO says officials at 24 major federal agencies reported repeated challenges tied to cost control, conflicting software guidance, and outdated acquisition-regulation definitions.

What GAO reviewed

GAO examined cloud procurement across agencies covered by the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act. GAO’s headline finding: senior officials from 22 of the 24 selected agencies reported mainly relying on historical procurement data to help make cloud decisions.

The procurement challenges GAO says show up most often

GAO reports that senior officials most frequently identified these cloud procurement obstacles:

• Control of cloud costs requires changes in IT management approaches (17 agencies). GAO says because cloud services are billed on a consumption model, agencies may need to adjust day-to-day practices to track and control usage spending.
• Conflicting OMB and NIST software guidance caused confusion (17 agencies). GAO says the inconsistency created unnecessary burdens for collecting and storing key software components.
• Outdated Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) impeded cloud procurements (15 agencies). GAO says the FAR still lacks cloud-related definitions and that other core definitions don’t align with how cloud computing is used today—even after FAR changes made between April 2025 and October 2025.
• Agencies encountered difficulties obtaining authorized cloud solutions (15 agencies).
• Multi-vendor cloud adoption faced new technical considerations (11 agencies), including interoperability.
• Resource constraints hindered cloud workforce acquisition (10 agencies).

Why this matters for taxpayers and federal users

GAO does not argue that cloud procurement is automatically wasteful. Instead, it frames these items as procurement challenges that can translate into inefficiencies—and it also notes that agencies’ ongoing and planned actions, if implemented effectively, could lead to substantial savings.

Practically, the GAO report centers on a simple accountability question: do procurement rules, guidance, and day-to-day cost management practices match how cloud services actually work (including consumption-based billing and multi-vendor implementation)? When those don’t line up, agencies can face more friction in contracting, compliance, and scaling modernization.

What GAO wants Congress and agencies to do next

GAO’s “matter for congressional consideration” focuses on updating how cloud is defined in law and acquisition rules:

• Congress should consider updating statutory definitions of commercial products and commercial services, and requiring acquisition regulations to reflect these definitions.
• Congress should consider requiring acquisition regulations be updated to define information technology consistent with FITARA and to define “cloud computing” consistent with NIST’s definition.

GAO’s executive-action recommendations are aimed at specific agencies and governance bodies:

• GSA: require agencies to use FinOps practices and report the extent of benefits resulting from the practices.
• DHS (CISA): issue additional SBOM implementation guidance, including how agencies should integrate SBOM generation, consumption, and analysis into risk management, purchasing, and software development.
• Federal CIO Council: collect and share examples of leading practices for multi-vendor cloud solutions, including containerization and testing platform interoperability.

What to watch next

• Whether Congress moves to update acquisition-related definitions as GAO recommends.
• Whether GSA, DHS/CISA, and the Federal CIO Council provide and implement the guidance and governance steps GAO called for.
• Whether agencies tighten cloud cost management (especially around consumption-based spending) and improve how they implement multi-vendor environments.

Sources

• GAO-26-107530 product page (published June 23, 2026)
• GAO-26-107530 full report (readable HTML)

Look for updates to this story

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