“Cloud First” Lessons Learned from ViON

August 25, 2015 / G C Network / Comments Off on “Cloud First” Lessons Learned from ViON

GovCloud Founder and Veteran’s 360 Showcased in US Veteran’s Magazine

By G C Network | June 13, 2014

Kevin L. Jackson, CEO and Founder of GovCloud Network, LLC, was showcased in US Veteran’s Magazine for his work with Veteran’s 360, a San Diego, California non-profit. With more than…

Cloud Environment Can Enable Fast, Secure Collaboration among Industries, Nations

By G C Network | June 4, 2014

NCOIC’s Kevin Jackson to present new process for creating interoperability via a cyber-secure multi-cloud environment at cloud computing conferences in the U.S. and China WASHINGTON—June 4, 2014—Cyber-secure cloud computing can…

The Federal Government Journey to Cloud Computing: Lessons Learned

By G C Network | June 3, 2014

[Republished from”On The FrontLines” magazine “Cloud Computing in Government: Lesson’s Learned” issue. Download the full 20 page issue online at https://digital.onthefrontlines.net/i/319551 ) In February 2011, Vivek Kundra announced the “Cloud…

Cloud Computing In Government Lesson’s Learned From On The FrontLines Magazine

By G C Network | May 29, 2014

Congratulations to my friends at “On The FrontLines Magazine” for an EXCELLENT presentation of important operational and managerial cloud computing transition lessons. This issues showcases cloud computing leaders from government…

From “Boots on the Ground” To “Heads in the Cloud,” Non-Profit aims to offer Cloud Training & business services to Corporate IT and HR teams.

By G C Network | May 28, 2014

From “military dedication” to “civilian success,”Veterans 360 Services is approaching the challenging transition of military service to civilian life with an innovative, focused and all-inclusive, 360 degree, process of education…

ICH Agile Cloud Consortium Completes Successful Event

By G C Network | May 22, 2014

Thank you to all that participated in yesterday’s ICH Agile Cloud Service Catalog event.    ICH Agile Cloud is an industry-wide effort targeted at developing an open and inclusive cloud service…

ICH Releases Agenda for Agile Cloud Service Catalog Session

By G C Network | May 20, 2014

The Agile Cloud consortium’s second event will occur on May 21, 2014 at TIA Headquarters in Arlington, VA. This event will focus on development of the Agile Cloud Environment Service…

PDNS Offers “Anchor” Cloud Services to Agile Cloud Consortium

By G C Network | May 14, 2014

Private Digital Network Services (PDNS) and partners will provide its national, Private Digital Network (PDN) core and a suite of highly sought after services to the Interoperability Clearinghouse Agile Cloud effort. Its…

ICH/ITAAC Announces Second Agile Cloud Environment Event

By G C Network | May 7, 2014

The 2nd Agile Cloud Environment event will be held on May 21, 2014 at TIA Headquarters. This event will focus on development of the Agile Cloud Environment Service Catalog. The…

Interoperability Clearinghouse Launches “Agile Cloud” Collaboration

By G C Network | April 28, 2014

Last Wednesday, Maj Gen, USAF (Ret) John T. Brennan, Interoperability Clearinghouse (ICH) Executive Director, kicked off the Agile Cloud collaboration. This industry-wide effort is targeted at developing an open and…


In 2011, then United States CIO Vivek Kundra released the US Federal Cloud Computing Strategy [1]. In the executive summary he pointed to cloud computing as a key component of the US Federal Government’s information technology modernization efforts:
“Cloud computing has the potential to play a major part in addressing these inefficiencies and improving government service delivery. The cloud computing model can significantly help agencies grappling with the need to provide highly reliable, innovative services quickly despite resource constraints.”
This “Cloud First” initiative was a complement to the 2010 Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI), which was created to reverse the historic growth of Federal data centers.
Since then, ViON Corporation has teamed with its US Federal Agency customers to make the promises outlined by Mr. Kundra a reality. In accomplishing this work, they provide industry leading data center professional services which also include networking, Cloud Design and IT infrastructure architecture expertise.  In the following interview, Richard Campbell and Keith Greene, two of their leading Cloud Solution Architects, share their experience and lessons learned with the “Cloud Musing’s” audience.
Kevin:  Rich and Keith, thank you very much for taking the time to participate in this interview.  In  order to get us all on the same page, could you please tell us how your US Federal customers view data center consolidation and cloud computing? Are these initiatives separate activities or are they part of an overall strategy?
Rich:  Our customers really have differing views on the intended goals of these two initiatives.  Most agencies want to leverage congressionally appropriate funds to help them transition to a more economic IT consumption model that can be funded through their operational budgets.  Data center consolidation efforts, however, are typically a reaction to budget cuts and are based on the need to reduce agency capital expenditures.  Some actually do link the efforts and are using consolidation benefits in order to modernizing while simultaneously reaping the rewards that cloud solutions generally provide.
Keith:  I agree with that observation.  Apart from physical relocation of equipment, customers achieved data center consolidation thru virtualization.  Over time, they discovered that the projected savings weren’t being realized due to unanticipated increase costs associated with licensing, support, security, and compliance issues.  This phenomenon is generally referred to as “VM Sprawl”.  While virtualization can be an important component of many deployments, cloud resource enablement, orchestration, and management capabilities typically reduce the overall costs of an organization’s IT environment. Additionally, controls in the cloud stack continually monitor the provisioning and billing process which inevitably leads to more efficient use of the environment.
Kevin:  With that said, what challenges do your customers run into when they decide to adopt cloud computing?
Rich:  The biggest challenges we see are application modernization and the enterprise getting a grasp on the associated dependencies between those apps.
Keith:  IT Managers are faced with a major dilemma when they are asked to cut overall IT costs by going to the cloud.  While the cloud does provide a relatively easy way to consume infrastructure services in a “pay-as-you-go” model, many current applications are not “cloud ready”.  Most agency applications have been written and designed to operate in a client/server architecture.  Many times these deployments used hard coded IP addresses which introduced static application dependencies within a static infrastructure environment.  With cloud computing, the infrastructure is dynamic by design.  Applications must be therefore be written so that they can deal with the fluidity of the virtual cloud environments.  Rewriting legacy application so that they can work on the cloud can cost more than the infrastructure savings.
https://www.vion.com/

Kevin:  So how can ViON help agencies address this issue?
Keith:  Through the experience we’ve gained, Vion can provide advice and assistance on implementing best practices for cloud transition and data migration.  We can also help the agency understand application dependencies which is one of the most critical inputs when selecting appropriate data migration tools.
Kevin:  Do you see any differences civilian and DoD agencies when you help them in this transition?
Rich:  For the most part they are the same but FedRAMP,the Federal Risk Authorization and Management Program, has really helped by enabling a government-wide cloud computing security accreditation process.  Although the DoD requires some additional security and protection methods, the FedRAMP baseline can significantly reduce both time and cost.
Kevin:  What would be your advice to an agency that’s developing their cloud transition strategy?
Rich:  Government agencies really need to better align their IT resources with their individual mission requirements and goals.  Effective cloud computing solutions aren’t designed and built around a specific technology but rather IT services that support an organization’s global efforts. They also need to have a holistic approach in their application modernization efforts.  The ability to leverage an open agile solutions will deliver benefits at every level.  
Keith:  Agencies must also focus on the change management challenges they are sure to face.  Existing rules and policies need to be modified so that they don’t act as an impediment to the mission agility that cloud can provide.  The ability for the cloud administrator to move resources around dynamically is sometimes viewed by change advisory boards as operating out of control, which in turn is counter-productive and limiting.  
Kevin:  Rich, Keith, thank you both for enlightening us with your experience and insights.
Rich and Keith:  Our pleasure.

[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/egov_docs/federal-cloud-computing-strategy.pdf

( This content is being syndicated through multiple channels. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of GovCloud Network, GovCloud Network Partners or any other corporation or organization.)
 

Cloud Musings

( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS – © Copyright Kevin L. Jackson 2015)

Follow me at https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson
Posted in

G C Network

Cloud Computing

Cybersecurity