US Government Hits the Road with Cloud Details

November 7, 2011 Off By David
Grazed from BusinessCloud9.  Author: Stuart Lauchlan.

With the UK government’s G-Cloud ambitions now public, there’s more activity across the pond where the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released the first two volumes of a draft ‘roadmap’ for Cloud Computing…

The US government got its own version of G-Cloud – the Federal Cloud Computing Strategy – out the door in February this year. It’s now the role of NIST to define necessary Cloud standards and collaborate with US government agencies to accelerate the adoption of Cloud in the federal government sector. The NIST document explains:   

“ In the technology vision of Federal Cloud Computing Strategy success, USG agencies will be able to easily locate desired IT services in a mature and competitive marketplace, rapidly procure access to these services, and use them to deliver innovative mission solutions. Cloud services will be secure, interoperable, and reliable. Agencies will be able to switch between providers easily and with minimal cost, and receive equal or superior services. ”
 

The roadmap, U.S. Government Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap, Release 1.0 (NIST Special Publication 500-293) is aimed at supporting adoption and realising the potential cost savings of Cloud Computing.

The first volume, High-Priority Requirements to Further USG Agency Cloud Computing Adoption is a general overview that includes:

  • Prioritised interoperability, portability and security requirements that must be met to further government Cloud adoption
  • Standards, guidelines and technology that must be in place to satisfy these requirements
  • A list of Priority Action Plans recommended for voluntary self-tasking by the Cloud stakeholder community to support standards, guidelines and technology development.

Volume II, Useful Information for Cloud Adopters, is a technical reference that summarises the work completed to date and explains the assessment findings to support the roadmap. Volume III, Technical Considerations for USG Cloud Computing Deployment Decisions, is still under development.

Announcing the draft roadmap last week at an event at NIST headquarters, NIST director Pat Gallagher said:   

“Our goal is to make it substantially easier to buy, sell, interconnect, and use cloud environments in the government. The roadmap will serve as our action plan, and we expect it not only to drive federal standards efforts, but because our needs are not unique in government, we think it will help the private sector as well. We’ve already defined some of the key pieces. Now we’re putting it all together into a plan of attack, a specific action plan that strikes the balance between short- and long-term goals and defines steps to take.”
 

In one of his first public speeches since taking over from Vivek Kundra as federal CIO, Stevem Van Roekel made it clear that he will be carrying on his predecessor’s ‘Cloud First’ agenda and go beyond the currently sought $20 billion of savings from moving services to the Cloud:   

“We have really viewed Cloud Computing as a once in a lifetime opportunity to improve how the government buys, uses, and thinks about IT services. And with pressure on reduced spending and citizens who are stepping up in terms of what they expect from government, that’s putting pressure on government to deliver more with less.”
 
CategoryNews