GSA, DoD and NCOIC to Collaborate on Government Cloud Computing

Yesterday, during the NCOIC Cloud Computing Workshop, collaboration seemed to be the focus as Katie Lewin, GSA Cloud Computing Initiative Program manager, and Dan Risacher, DoD Cloud Computing Storefront project lead, both offered to collaborate on cloud computing with the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC). As the interim chairman of the NCOIC Cloud Computing Working Group (CCWG), I welcomed the offer and promised that the NCOIC will do it’s part and serve as their “industry panel” in this quickly evolving space.

In line with the NCOIC mission, the CCWG was chartered to collaborate and engage with other cloud activities to look at standards-based solutions specifically for government mission areas. The overarching goal is to ensure peer-to-peer cloud interoperability, improve usability/trust of the cloud and establish portability across clouds. In support of the established NCOIC Integrated Project Teams (IPTs), the CCWG will work to establishment cloud computing standards in the following mission areas:

• Aviation
• Command, Control & Communications Interoperability
• Net Enabled Emergency Response
• Sense & Respond Logistics
• Maritime; and
• Cyber Security

To accomplish it’s task, CCWG member have identified current industry activities as input
sources to specific NCOIC deliverables. This roadmap will be used to initially guide the working
groups activities.

Yesterday’s NCOIC Cloud Computing Workshop impressive list of speakers included:

• Katie Lewin, Chief of Staff, Program Manager, Cloud Computing Initiative GSA Office of the Chief Information Officer – Federal Cloud Initiative
• Brand Niemann – Senior Enterprise Architect, US EPA – Semantic Cloud Computing & Open Linked Data Pattern
• Dan Risacher Enterprise Services & Integration Office of the DoD CIO – Cloud Computing and the DoD CIO Storefront
• MG Stephen Gross (USAFR) NEER IPT Chair Deputy Director Deloitte & Touche Center for Cyber Innovation – Using a CloudComputing Model to Establish Net-Enabled Emergency Response (NEER) Core Services
• Dr. Craig A. Lee, President, Open Grid Forum – Driving Coordination and Progress in Cloud Standards
• Nils Puhlmann, Cloud Security Alliance – Cloud Security
• Peter Mell, NIST, Information Technology Laboratory – A Roadmap for Cloud Standards
• Robert Vietmeyer, Forge.mil Project Director – Forge.mil Overview
• John Willis – Cloud Computing Use Case Group – Cloud Computing Use Cases

For further information on the NCOIC Cloud Computing Working Group, please contact Tim Thomas, tim.thomas@ncoic.org (membership) or Patricia Perlini, patricia.perlini@verizon.net (Public Relations).
UPDATE:

During the second day of the NCOIC Plenary session the Services Working Group held a great follow-up session that included a brief from Henry Sienkiewicz, Technical Program Director, Computing Services at DISA. His Cloud Computing: A perspective, provides an excellent overview of the Rapid Access Computing Environment (RACE), the GIG Content Delivery Service (GCDS) and Forge.mil, DISA’s collaborative platform for software development

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