Lost in the cloud – Agencies go elsewhere for computing needs
September 10, 2012
Grazed from Federal Times. Author: Nichole Blake Johnson.
The General Services Administration is supposed to be the leader guiding agencies’ adoption of cloud computing. But some agencies have gone elsewhere for cloud services.
One reason is GSA was delayed in launching a governmentwide contract for cloud email until last month. Another reason is GSA has been slow in verifying that awardees on an earlier contract have information systems that meet federal security standards…
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Agriculture and Interior departments and others have contracted directly with vendors or agencies for cloud services. And they project millions of dollars in annual savings.
Agencies are under pressure from the Office of Management and Budget to identify information technology services that can be moved to the cloud. They are “responding with agency-by-agency procurements,” said David Bodenheimer, a partner with law firm Crowell & Moring’s government contracts group. “It tells us that GSA … services are available but apparently are not fitting the agency needs either in terms of scope or availability or timing.”…
Read more from the source @ http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20120910/IT04/309100001/Lost-cloud-Agencies-go-elsewhere-computing-needs?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE