Vivek Kundra – State of Public Sector Cloud Computing

A group of people standing in front of a large screen.

2018 AT&T Business Summit: Security “in” and “of” the Cloud

By G C Network | November 10, 2018

While public cloud is undoubtedly an outsized piece of the conversation, news headlines of the latest data breach can make this move a very frightening proposition. The question of how…

A group of people standing in front of a display.

My Brush with Royalty: Queen Latifah

By G C Network | November 9, 2018

Queen Latifah! Hip Hop Icon. Movie Star. Television Star. Fashion Model. Songwriter. Producer. Entrepreneurial Genius!? YES! Dana Elaine Owens, her given name, is co-owner of Flavor Unit Entertainment, a firm that includes…

What’s New in Puppet 5?

By G C Network | November 9, 2018

Puppet 5 is released and comes with several exciting enhancements and features that promise to make configuration management much more streamlined. This article will take a comprehensive look at these…

5 Reasons Why Ansible is the Best CM Tool Out There?

By G C Network | November 9, 2018

Amidst volatile markets, dynamic technology shifts, and ever-increasing customer demands, it is imperative for IT organizations to develop flexible, scalable and high-quality applications that exceed expectations and enhance productivity. A…

Machine learning APIs for Google Cloud Platform

By G C Network | November 9, 2018

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is considered to be one of the Big 3 cloud platforms among Microsoft Azure and AWS. GCP is widely used cloud solutions supporting AI capabilities to design and…

What Is The Most Important Part of Architecture?

By G C Network | November 9, 2018

I always find it interesting to hear what people view architecture as. A lot of people think it’s just about the design aspect, where you get to put pen to…

Cloud migration best practice Part 4: Executing the migration

By G C Network | September 16, 2018

This series has stepped through cloud migration best practices. After providing an overview, we discussed: Classifying business-critical data. Updating organizational IT governance policies. Application screening and cloud workload selection. How to…

Cloud Migration Best Practice Part 3: Application Portfolio Analysis

By G C Network | September 16, 2018

In part three of this series on cloud migration best practice, I will focus on migrating the application itself. If you haven’t had the opportunity to read our recommendations from part…

Why Use Immutable Storage?

By G C Network | September 11, 2018

Data has become a global currency, and its value has nowhere to go but up.  According to The Economist online, the world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but…

CLOUD ACT: What Does That Mean for Your Cloud Storage

By G C Network | August 31, 2018

When Congress names a law after you, it’s getting serious.  That is where we are now with cloud computing.  The Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act or CLOUD Act (H.R. 4943) is…

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 to foster the adoption of cloud computing, but it also describes 30 illustrative case studies at the Federal, state and local government level. As stated in the report:

“The Obama Administration is changing the way business is done in Washington and bringing a new sense of responsibility to how we manage taxpayer dollars. We are working to bring the spirit of American innovation and the power of technology to improve performance and lower the cost of government operations.”

Issuance of this report reinforces last week’s Washington, DC event during which the CIO pushed to engage closely with industry on this important journey towards cloud computing. A critical aspect of this journey is the development of cloud computing standards. Led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) , these activities will facilitate industry adoption of high priority security, interoperability, and portability requirements. Current cloud computing standards development activities, conducted by the NIST Information Technology Laboratory (ITL), include:

Special Publications: NIST plans to issue an initial SP on cloud computing. The purpose is to provide insight into the benefits and considerations, and the secure and effective uses of cloud computing. More specifically, the document will provide guidance on key considerations of cloud computing: interoperability, portability, and security. To present these issues, the document will use the broadly recognized and adopted NIST Definition of Cloud Computing as a basis, given informal models of the major cloud computing service categories (Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Infrastructure as a Service). The publication will outline typical terms of use for cloud systems, will synopsize future research areas in cloud computing, and will provide informal recommendations.

Standards Acceleration to Jumpstart Adoption of Cloud Computing (SAJACC): The SAJAAC strategy and approach is to accelerate the development of standards and to increase the level of confidence in cloud computing adoption during the interim period before cloud computing standards are formalized. SAJACC will provide information about interim specifications and the extent that they support key cloud computing requirements through a NIST hosted SAJACC portal. More specifically, SAJACC will provide a public Internet-accessible repository of cloud computing usage scenarios (i.e., use cases), documented cloud system interfaces, pointers to cloud system reference implementations, and test results showing the extent to which different interfaces can support individual use cases.

Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP): NIST, in the technical advisory role to the interagency Federal Cloud Computing Advisory Council (CCAC) Security Working Group will define an initial technical approach and process for FedRAMP consistent with NIST security guidance in the context of the Federal Information System Management Act (FISMA). To clarify the role of NIST with respect to FedRAMP, while NIST is supporting the definition of the FedRAMP process from a technical perspective, NIST is not the implementing organization. The governance and operational implementation of FedRAMP will be completed under the auspices of the Federal CIO Council.

I personally urge you to take a look at the case studies provided. Federal agency examples are impressive!

• Department of Defense (United States Army) – Army Experience Center
• Department of Defense (Defense Information Systems Agency) – Rapid Access Computing Environment
• Department of Defense (Defense Information Systems Agency) – Forge.mil
• Department of Defense (United States Air Force) – Personnel Services Delivery Transformation
• Department of Energy (Lawrence Berkeley National Labs) – Cloud Computing Migration
• Department of Health and Human Services – Supporting Electronic Health Records
• Department of the Interior – Agency-wide E-mail
• General Services Administration (Office of Citizen Services) – USA.gov
• General Services Administration – Agency-wide E-mail
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Ames Research Center) – World-Wide Telescope
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) – Be A Martian
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration – Enterprise Data Center Strategy
• Social Security Administration – Online Answers Knowledgebase
• Federal Labor Relations Authority – Case Management System
• Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board – Recovery.gov Cloud Computing Migration
• Securities and Exchange Commission – Investor Advocacy System

Although these only represent the tip of the iceberg, they are also proof positive that the public sector’s move towards cloud computing is real and enduring

Bookmark and Share

Cloud Musings
( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS – KLJ )

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

G C Network

2 Comments

  1. Suzanne on October 14, 2010 at 7:50 am

    great post!



  2. James on April 21, 2013 at 12:25 am

    Department of Health's strong support to the new medical billing service assures the correct tax payment to the government. In doing so, our country could slowly recover from last year's recession. Practice management software locks down the information of patients' medical record. And this could help pattern the right tax to be paid.