Aneesh Chopra Nominated For Federal CTO

One AWESOME Week of Cloud Computing

By G C Network | June 11, 2010

We just finished up five AWESOME days of cloud computing training with USAREUR in Schwetzingen, Germany ! CHECK IT OUT !! Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com. Sure we…

NGA Exploring “Community Cloud” With NCOIC

By G C Network | June 7, 2010

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is looking to leverage industry expertise through collaboration with the Network Centic Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC). NGA provides timely, relevant and accurate geospatial intelligence in…

DoD, NASA and GSA Address Secure Cloud Computing

By G C Network | May 29, 2010

On Thursday, May 26th, the Federal Executive Forum featured three important Federal cloud computing leaders: David McClure- Associate Administrator, GSA Office of Citizen Services and Communications Col. Kevin Foster- Office of…

Cloud Computing Day at DoDIIS

By G C Network | May 25, 2010

I’m declaring Monday, May 24th, as Cloud Computing Day at DoDIIS.  Lieutenant General Richard Zahner, Army Deputy Chief of Staff, G2, seemed to get things going with his video that…

Vivek Kundra – State of Public Sector Cloud Computing

By G C Network | May 25, 2010

Last week Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra release his report on the “State of Public Sector Cloud Computing”. The report not only details Federal budget guidance issued to agencies…

Cloud Computing at DoDIIS

By G C Network | May 18, 2010

Next week in Phoenix, AZ, the Defense Intelligence Agency will host the 2010 Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems (DoDIIS) Worldwide Conference. The theme of this event is “Mission Powered…

Open Group Publishes Guidelines on Cloud Computing ROI

By G C Network | April 29, 2010

In an important industry contribution, The Open Group has published a white paper on how to build and measure cloud computing return on investment (ROI). Produced by the Cloud Business…

The Army’s iPhone Story

By G C Network | April 15, 2010

Sandra Erwin of National Defense magazine just published an excellent article on the Army’s foray into developing soldier-friendly smartphone applications.  Giving credit to Army CIO Lt. Gen, Jeffrey Sorenson and…

Vivek Kundra Steps Up to Cloud Computing’s Next Challenge

By G C Network | April 11, 2010

” [C]loud customers must be able to easily store, access, and process data across multiple clouds; weave together a mesh of different services to meet their needs; and have a…

Cloud Computing’s Next Challenge

By G C Network | March 26, 2010

Earlier this month, Melvin Greer and I teamed up on a Military Information Technology piece. Melvin is a senior research engineer and cloud computing chief architect at Lockheed Martin, and…

Although Aneesh Chopra is a new name for most, he is well know in Virginia as Governor Tim Kaine’s Secretary of Technology. For the Commonwealth, he was charged with leading the state’s strategy to effectively leverage technology in government reform. If his strategy for the state can be used as an indicator for his plans in President Obama’s administration, you should take a look at Virginia’s Strategic Plan for Information Technology.

One of the state’s most successful recent innovations was the Virginia Information Technology Agency (VITA), the Commonwealth’s consolidated information technology organization. Not your typical government agency, VITA is actually a public-private partnership between Virginia and Northrop Grumman.

“The 10-year, $2 billion public-private partnership between VITA and Northrop Grumman is transforming state government’s IT infrastructure technology and providing the expertise and resources to support improved delivery of government services. Believed to be the first and the largest of its kind in the nation, the IT Infrastructure Partnership will deliver state-of-the-art technologies with significant resources for the benefit of citizens and consumers.

VITA and Northrop Grumman formed a public private partnership to provide the latest information technology services to Virginia state government. Northrop Grumman is responsible for the service delivery of the Commonwealth’s IT infrastructure needs, with oversight from VITA. It also provides the essential up-front private sector capital that otherwise would not be practically available to the Commonwealth. That capital enables the transformation of the IT environment and provides for ongoing refreshes to keep it in step with future technology advancements.

By July 2009, the partnership will transform the state’s IT infrastructure from more than 80 different agency systems to an enterprise-wide and a more cohesive, secure and efficient infrastructure.”

Mr. Chopra’s background with VITA seems to be a match for Vivek Kundra and the apparent vector towards Federal cloud computing. A VITA-like Federal agency may, in fact, be the perfect model for managing the coming government cloud.

This really is change!
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