Cloud Computing Spunje » App.gov

Delivering the IT promise

Cloud Computing Spunje — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:00:37 +0000

Investment in IT must be a key element of future spending plans despite the need for savings across the public sector, says Socitm president Jos Creese

Like other public sector managers, my first thoughts about life under the coalition have focused on the likely areas, depth and impact of budget cuts. For IT we’ve already had announcements that high-profile projects, including the ContactPoint database and ID cards, are to be scrapped. More will follow.
While these moves are not surprising, there are real concerns at Socitm about indiscriminate slashing of IT spending. Making blanket cuts could be a disaster.

http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=14483

You cannot apply IT over the top of outdated and inefficient processes and hope that, as if by magic, technology will change everything.

Federal government seeks bids for cloud computing services

Cloud Computing Spunje — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:52:38 +0000

Local companies are hoping to help the federal government move into cloud — or Internet-based — computing, as the General Services Administration prepares to select vendors able to offer the services to federal agencies.

The GSA and federal officials are touting the promise of the new technology, but the Government Accountability Office warns that federal agencies remain concerned about potential security risks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/25/AR2010062504339.html

“This is a very important program for the government because it addresses a couple things that have been inhibitors to cloud, the first being ease of procurement,” said Phil Horvitz, the company’s chief technology officer.

Applicants still submitting bids for government cloud services

Cloud Computing Spunje — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:50:37 +0000

The General Services Administration is nearing its bid due date from prospective companies looking to help the government adopt cloud services.

The GSA has given vendors until June 30 to submit bids that explain how they would install a cloud infrastructure for the government. Once all the bids have been received, the GSA will select viable contractors that federal agencies can contact for cloud services, the Washington Post reports.
“Cloud computing is inevitable,” said David McClure, associate adminstrator for the GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, the Washington Post relays. “It’s the speed and pace and direction that we’re always uncertain of, but it’s an inevitable move because the computing industry itself is moving in this direction.”

http://www.centerbeam.com/news/Cloud-Computing/Applicants-still-submitting-bids-for-government-cloud-services-CBOID65030686-GRPOID50590013/View.aspx

McClure’s assessment of cloud computing is accurate, based upon a recent report from IDC. Public IT cloud services revenue is expected to rise to $55.5 billion in 2014, which is nearly three and a half times as much revenue recorded in 2009

U.S. government slowly adopting Web-based computing

Cloud Computing Spunje — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:47:34 +0000

In a fledgling and rapidly growing industry, companies like Google Inc, Microsoft Corp and Salesforce.com Inc, the world’s biggest maker of Web-based software, are trying to move rapidly to provide cloud computing services — where data is stored on remote servers — to corporations and the U.S. government, which spends about $80 billion each year on technology.

“The cloud can allow teleworkers to easily and securely access their data and work from wherever they happen to be,” Mike Bradshaw, who heads Google’s federal cloud computing program, said at a congressional hearing.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6604IU20100701

The United States, seeking to modernize technology and reduce costs, is embracing “cloud computing,” but privacy and security issues need to be ironed out during a decade-long transition, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

Government Taps the Power of Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing Spunje — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:25:04 +0000

Since taking office, the Obama administration has pushed the Federal government to improve efficiency in its IT systems and provide citizens with greater transparency through the use of innovative technology. Following this mandate, Federal CIO Vivek Kundra has recently promoted virtualizing and consolidating data centers and operations, and ultimately shifting government IT to a cloud-computing business model. This has led major governmental agencies to identify projects and IT operations that can benefit from moving to the cloud.

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/06/22/government-taps-the-power-of-cloud-computing/

The President’s Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, issued on January 21, 2009, has been a step in the right direction, requiring agencies to develop public-facing web sites and post up-to-date information to support federal transparency, participation and collaboration goals

Federal Agencies Shift Into Cloud Adoption

Cloud Computing Spunje — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:18:33 +0000

Technology leaders with the Department of Energy, the Defense Information Systems Agency, and GSA will outline their next steps in cloud computing on June 15 at InformationWeek’s Government IT Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C. With new implementations of infrastructure as a service and software as a service, including hosted apps from Google and Microsoft, the feds appear to be shifting aggressively into full-scale adoption of the cloud services model.

As we’ve been documenting for the past year, Uncle Sam has been investigating the potential benefits of cloud computing and agencies have been planning their first steps into the cloud. As we approach mid 2010, the mood is shifting from discussion and pilot projects into actual deployment.

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2010/06/federal_agencie.html

How to work through the expected 12-18 month planning cycle

Government and Industry at the Table for Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing Spunje — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:15:36 +0000

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) held an event last week that brought stakeholders in the federal IT community together to discuss cloud standards for data portability, interoperability, and security. It was called the Cloud Computing Forum & Workshop, and members of the Microsoft Federal team attended to brainstorm ideas on how we can best facilitate cloud adoption in the federal government.

Below is a great recap from Susie Adams, Microsoft’s Federal Civilian and IGO Chief Technology Officer.

http://www.rdmag.com/News/Feeds/2010/05/information-tech-government-and-industry-at-the-table-for-cloud-com/

The rest of the day had the same tone: focused on finding and fixing the actual impediments to cloud computing for the government, with a genuine sense of inter-agency cooperation, led from the top.

Feds Advance Cloud Adoption Plans

Cloud Computing Spunje — Sat, 22 May 2010 10:23:27 +0000

The federal government has made a number of moves on several fronts in the past two weeks with respect to its cloud computing initiatives.It has issued a new request for quotations for infrastructure-as-a-service, updated its Apps.gov cloud computing store, released a report on the state of public sector cloud computing, revealed details about a cloud security effort, and formally launched a cloud standards effort.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/cloud-saas/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224900701

In the past two weeks alone, the government has introduced a new cloud RFQ, expanded its cloud app store, and launched a clouds standards effort.

Inside NASA’s Nebula Compute Cloud

Cloud Computing Spunje — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:22:56 +0000

NASA’s prototype cloud computing environment, Nebula, is about to be extended from a few experimental testers to a broader, more geographically distributed beta test. And, in one of the first examples of its applicability for real world computing, Nebula will also be used to host a newly USASpending.gov site.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/cloud-saas/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224202583

NASA engineers have developed a cloud computing environment in a portable container that’s about to go into broader testing.

Government agencies that have adopted Google’s Gmail service may start to notice their employees sharing more personal information.

Cloud Computing Spunje — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:28:59 +0000

In a few months, Google wants to incorporate its social networking Buzz feature into enterprise versions of Gmail, The Hill has confirmed. The Buzz feature allows Gmail users to connect with other e-mail contacts to show updates, photos and links.

Google received a firestorm of criticism when it first released Buzz for violating Gmail users’ privacy. Google added users’ Gmail contacts to their Buzz lists without first asking their permission, say privacy groups and some lawmakers.

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/90701-google-plans-to-add-buzz-to-its-enterprise-version-of-gmail

“We got a bit of a ding by the press,” he said. “Fortunately we were able to correct it and in four days changed the policies.”