Founded in 1775, the U.S. Postal Service is among the oldest federal agencies, yet its recent modernization efforts have it positioned perfectly for today’s digital age. While its mail carriers deliver nearly a half billion mail pieces each day, 52 million Americans digitally preview their mail through the Postal Service’s Informed Delivery service, and another 10 million Americans visit usps.com each day. Its sprawling collection of more than 31,000 post offices nationwide is now buoyed by a growing catalog of more than 900 applications and an equally impressive 110 petabytes of data on everything from mailing addresses to delivery times.
Cloud computing underpins the Postal Service’s recent modernization effort and its ability to deliver a digital experience to customers. Nextgov/FCW discussed these efforts with Postal Service Chief Information Officer Pritha Mehra in an Oct. 19 interview, which has been edited for clarity and length.