Twitter Feed
The Endpoint Imperative: In a Software World, Hardware Does Matter
Hardware matters. From productivity to security to innovation, make sure your machines can keep up. Intel’s Sarah Wieskus joins The End Point Imperative: A Podcast series from Intel to discuss…
IT Transformation with Watson
Credit: Shutterstock by Kevin Jackson & Dez Blanchfield IBM recently launched an exciting new project in the form of a podcast series produced and hosted Dez Blanchfield, appropriately titled the…
The Endpoint Imperative: A Form Factor Renaissance
Workplace expectations are changing, and along with them, the devices we use to do our jobs. In this episode of “The End Point Imperative”, Intel’s Sarah Wieskus tells us about…
Cloud Storage 2.0 Set To Dominate Market
The enterprise data storage marketplace is poised to become a battlefield. No longer the quiet backwater of cloud computing services, the focus of this global transition is now going from…
Top “Cloud Musings” Posts For 2017
( 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…
The Endpoint Imperative: ID’ing and Overcoming the Stumbling Blocks to Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation is the No 1 priority for organizations large and small. It’s imperative that IT remove any obstacles to digital transformation success – including outdated PCs and mobile devices.…
Industry Verticals Tackle Unstructured Data
Organizations around the world are struggling to cope with the current data explosion. A vital characteristic of this data is that it is unstructured and represents things like email,…
The Endpoint Imperative: The Perimeter is Dead; Long Live the Perimeter!
Cloud, mobility and the Internet of Things have obliterated the traditional perimeter that protected organizations. The result: Higher productivity, but bigger challenges for security, data protection, and mobile device management.…
The Data Storage Explosion
Cloud computing innovation will power enterprise transformation in 2018. Cloud growth is also driving a rapid rise in the storage market, exacerbating the enterprise challenge around storage cost and complexity.…
Digital Transformation Drives Mainframe’s Future
Digital Transformation is amplifying mainframe as mission critical to business growth more than ever before. With 70% of the world’s corporate data and over half of the world’s enterprise…
A couple of weeks ago, I was offered a chance to meet Mr. Vivek Kundra at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in downtown Washington, DC. Needless to say, I was honored to be given the opportunity. Although I was clear on my own views of how the Federal government could use cloud computing, the Obama administration’s plans were, at that time, anything but certain. What a difference a week makes !!
As has been widely reported, the President’s 2010 Budget submission has firmly set cloud computing as a “key tool for improving innovation, efficiency and effectiveness in Federal IT. The GSA has emphasized this edict by releasing a request for information (RFI) for Infrastructure as a Service offerings. This rapid and fairly decisive course change to the way Federal IT will be procured in the future can potentially change an entire industry. Looking at what has happened in the financial and automotive industries, this could also be seen as the administration flexing its muscle yet again in order to set the direction of a crucial component of the US economic system.
So now, with a little over a week before my meeting with Mr. Kundra, what do I talk about? Since the administrations direction has now been set, there’s clearly no need to discuss cloud computing as the right direction for Federal IT. Not being a political pundit or economic advisor, I will definitely stay away from the debates around government influence over the commercial sector. So as a technologist, I will stick to my knitting and discuss what technologies the coming GovCloud implementation will be able to leverage going forward.
If you have any suggestions for me, I would be happy to hear about them. The only thing I ask is for your recommendations to be focused on general technologies, industry standards or open source approaches. Please, no specific commercial products or specific technology implementations.
Of particular interest to me will be those technologies, standards or approaches that are “shovel ready”, and available for pilot implementations today! As outlined in the budget, “… pilot projects will be implemented to offer an opportunity to utilize more fully and broadly departmental and agency architectures to identify enterprise-wide common services and solutions, with a new emphasis on cloud-computing. The pilots will test a variety of services and delivery modes, provisioning approaches, options, and opportunities that cloud computing brings to Federal Government. Additionally, the multiple approaches will focus on measuring service, cost, and performance; refining and scaling pilots to full capabilities; and providing financial support to accelerate migration”.
I look forward to your assistance on this!
Kevin Jackson
kvjacksn@gmail.com
3 Comments
Cloud Computing
- CPUcoin Expands CPU/GPU Power Sharing with Cudo Ventures Enterprise Network Partnership
- CPUcoin Expands CPU/GPU Power Sharing with Cudo Ventures Enterprise Network Partnership
- Route1 Announces Q2 2019 Financial Results
- CPUcoin Expands CPU/GPU Power Sharing with Cudo Ventures Enterprise Network Partnership
- ChannelAdvisor to Present at the D.A. Davidson 18th Annual Technology Conference
Cybersecurity
- Route1 Announces Q2 2019 Financial Results
- FIRST US BANCSHARES, INC. DECLARES CASH DIVIDEND
- Business Continuity Management Planning Solution Market is Expected to Grow ~ US$ 1.6 Bn by the end of 2029 - PMR
- Atos delivers Quantum-Learning-as-a-Service to Xofia to enable artificial intelligence solutions
- New Ares IoT Botnet discovered on Android OS based Set-Top Boxes
Kevin – good luck with the meeting. I like your idea of crowd-sourcing suggestions for the meeting! Others will likely have more valuable ideas than mine, so let me just suggest a little thing I’d like Vivek to keep in mind as a guiding principle for open government: Choice.
What do I mean? Government agencies, as they modernize to approach the agility and performance of great commercial IT shops, will be looking to cloud-solution (and other) providers for “business value and choice in a mixed-source world,” in the words of Microsoft’s Teresa Carlson. The agency CIOs and CTOs whom Vivek leads need the flexibility to choose the best tools to accomplish their mission regardless of platform. I’d hate to see a “one-size-fits-all” prescribed solution (even if it were based on Microsoft products!), and I think we’ll all benefit from a balanced approach with appropriate choice and flexibility reserved for smart CIOs.
Good luck and I’m looking forward to reading your report of the meeting! -lewis
Thank you very much for your comments. I agree with your thoughts and personally think that cloud portability will be a huge challenge.
Kevin, that is an awesome opportunity to be able to be part of shaping the future of IT for our Govt. This obviously comes with some great responsibility as well.
I think in order for the govt to adopt such a broad technology there needs to be standards set for interoperability and security first. We all know that standards boards tend to lag behind real world implementations. But in this case the consequences of not going forward with agreed upon security and interop standards is very dangerous.
What has worked with other technologies is lighting a torch underneath the vendors to get together and provide a set of standards before any govt contracts are let. Sometimes providing that carrot (big carrot) is essential to get everyone in the same room. Good luck with your meeting, very cool!