GSA creating cloud marketplace for federal services
By the end of the year, agencies likely will have an online marketplace to buy cloud computing services.
Dave McClure, the General Services Administration’s associate administrator in the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, said the online store will give agencies an avenue to offer, for a fee, excess storage, virtualization and other software-as-a-services to others.
"We want to create a robust environment so that the government is maximizing the use of its computing environment, which is not occurring and which has not occurred historically," McClure said after a speech Thursday at the Cloud/Gov 2012 event sponsored by the Software and Information Industry Association in Washington. "We are talking to government entities that we think are natural candidates to be in that provisioning space. The second step we have to do is to address the policy, security and all those other things that from a government-to-government interaction, that we have a process in place that is quick, efficient and used the same across government."…
Cloud computing needs a new generation of network management tools
As more organisations move more of their computing into cloud-based services, maintaining the quality of network connections becomes more and more important – and, says Christopher Burrell, VPN manager of Vox Telecom, a new generation of network management tools is needed.
“Network performance is the single biggest factor that determines end-user experience and productivity,” says Burrell. “But finding the source of a network problem is like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. It’s made worse by the fact that the issue may not be on your local network; it could be with your ISP, or with their upstream service provider, with an overseas link or even with the application itself.”…
Cloud Computing: Rackspace snaps up SharePoint911
Managed hosting and cloud computing provider Rackspace Hosting has hired a bunch of techies with expertise in a particular software stack, this time focusing on Microsoft’s SharePoint web content and document collaboration tools.
Rackspace today snapped up privately held SharePoint911, a consulting firm based in the hamlet of Maineville in southwestern Ohio that, as founder Shane Young puts it, pays the "big mouths" that are "fanatical about SharePoint."…
Are The Big Players Being Hypocritical On Cloud Computing Standards?
The usefulness (and necessity) of developing universal cloud computing standards has been covered in several articles (See: Cloud Computing Standards: How Important Are They? and Cloud Computing Standards – is it time? ). However, now that some concrete steps are being taken towards this goal, the industry is facing non-cooperation from several big players. Come to think of it, that’s not surprising.
Consider what the big names like Amazon and Microsoft may lose out on if universal standards come into place. One, they would lose the power of vendor lock-in by which existing customers would be forced to continue with existing vendors because switching costs would be too high. With universal standards, switching costs would decrease drastically, forcing the big players to keep demanding customers happy. And with multiple players vying for customers’ attention, that may not be too easy. As can be seen in the cell phone industry where portability is easy, there’s a lot of customer churn between vendors…
Apache Embraces Cloud With Deltacloud Approval
Extending its range of open-source projects to cloud computing, the Apache Software Foundation has approved the Deltacloud as a top-level project, the organization announced Thursday.
First developed by Red Hat in 2009, Deltacloud offers a set of APIs (application programming interfaces) that can be used to interact with multiple cloud service providers. Red Hat submitted Deltacloud to Apache in 2010, and Apache accepted the project in incubator status.
The Apache acceptance "is a significant milestone" for Deltacloud, said Scott Crenshaw, Red Hat vice president and general manager, in a webcast. "It reflects the breadth of the project’s community and the strong and fair governance structure around the project. While it was started by Red Hat, it is governed by an independent community."…
Government Moves Toward Cloud Computing ‘Perfect Storm’
Amid mounting budget pressures and a maturing set of technologies, the federal government is poised for the rapid adoption of cloud computing services over the next several years, according to one of the senior agency leaders helping craft a government-wide cloud strategy.
While federal tech chiefs have long envisioned an environment in which agency storage and applications are hosted and shared throughout the government, the policy reforms required for such a shift, though still very much a work in progress, have recently come into focus and figure to precipitate a major migration to the cloud over the next several years, said David McClure, the associate administrator of the General Services Administration’s Office Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies…
Leading Cloud Thinkers to Government: Cloud Is Imperative for Better Collaboration, Better Service and Better Cost
The TechAmerica Foundation today released the highly anticipated recommendations from the State and Local Government Cloud Commission (SLG-CC) that will assist state and local governments in navigating the adoption of cloud computing. The roadmap is designed for state and local officials who seek to deliver better service and cost savings to their constituents. This practical guidance and set of recommendations comes from the leading thinkers on cloud computing.
"Businesses and institutions across the nation have transformed their IT using the cloud, improving their ability to communicate, deliver value, and be competitive. Now is the time for these benefits to accrue to state and local governments as well. What’s been missing is a playbook — and we’re delivering that, based on a unique and powerful collaboration of 38 leading technology companies to create better collaboration within and between government agencies; resulting in better services and costs to governments and citizens," said Tarkan Maner, Commission Chair and President and CEO of Wyse Technology…
Cloud computing security issues on tap at RSA Conference 2012
As more organizations delve into public and private cloud computing, security issues are becoming more pressing. RSA Conference 2012 is testament to the growing interest in cloud security: An entire track is devoted to the topic, with sessions scheduled on cloud data privacy and data integrity in the cloud.
In addition, the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) will hold its third annual summit at the conference. The future of cloud security standards will be among the cloud computing security issues discussed at the summit, which is expected to draw about 1,100 attendees…
A Private Room in the Cloud
The word "terminal," before the computer revolution, had several meanings, one of which described it as either end of a carrier line containing facilities for freight and passengers. Nowadays, in the computer age, it can mean the end point of a carrier line containing data "floating" in a cloud and saved for many users and uses.
Specifically, in the case of V-Rooms, it means the secure cloud-location used as a warehouse of private portals.
Safe Storage in Clouds
So many individuals and businesses are now looking to cloud computing in order to store valuable data off-site. This gives those storing such data in clouds the security and peace of mind of having their precious "cargo" — data — stored in an offsite location and not having to worry about a force of nature, sometimes referred to in legal terms as a "force majeure."…
The Bottom-Up Nature of Cloud Adoption
If you want to learn about a company’s adoption of cloud computing, don’t ask the CIO. He might be the last to know.
That’s why surveys of CIOs tend to show meaningfully lower cloud adoption than similar surveys of developers, according to Geva Perry, an industry veteran and author of Thinking Out Cloud. Perry was one of the keynoters this week at the Cloud Connect conference at the Santa Clara Convention Center.
“The way adoption of cloud computing has worked is that it happens from the bottom up,” said Perry. “With Amazon, it was a developer-driven adoption. Amazon understood this, and built its service so it was optimized for developers.”…