Cloud Musings by Kevin L. Jackson

“Cloud” Shows Promise during Navy Trident Warrior

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:07:00 +0000

Last month as part of the Navy’s annual Trident Warrior exercise, Dataline, LLC successfully demonstrated that a standard shipboard communications infrastructure could be used to manage a commercial cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform. Presented during the fall Trident Warrior ’10 (TW ’10) lab period, Dataline’s Secure Cloud Computing experiment used a simulated shipboard infrastructure to demonstrate secure access to selected collaboration and geospatial information service (GIS) applications. The purpose was to validate the ability of a commercial Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform to support Department of the Navy (DON) requirements for global connectivity, server failover and application access. For this portion of the exercise, Dataline used the Amazon EC2 IaaS platform. The experiment also used SecureParser® as part of the Unisys Stealth architecture to provide “data-in-motion” security. Applications used included Oracle Beehive, ERDAS Apollo and the Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) developed Transverse collaboration suite. LCDR Caroline Lahman, Officer-in-Charge Navy FORCEnet San Diego, was pleased with the results noting a desire to continue these cloud computing experiments as part of the spring lab period.

During a recent interview, Robert Carey, Navy Chief Information Officer, also stated that cloud computing offered real value to the Navy. Citing that both the Navy Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) and Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) programs will leverage cloud computing, he envisioned a future day when “Grey clouds” within a ship’s hull would eventually transition to clouds within the battle group. The increased IT efficiency delivered through cloud computing would also enhance mission accomplishment by making more resources available for investment into naval mission platforms (ships and planes). Mr. Carey sees ready access to authoritative data from the cloud as an important enabler to a real-time/near real-time decision making process, saying that the cloud delivers the ability to have a ubiquitous computing environment and interoperability. After observing the experiment, SPAWAR representatives showed similar sentiments, saying that the Navy was actively considering the use of cloud computing technologies as part of its Naval Networks Enterprise-2016 strategy

Trident Warrior ’10 is scheduled to continue with a second lab period in the spring 2010 and an at sea demonstration period after that.

For further information on the Trident Warrior lab based experiments, please contact LCDR Caroline Lahman (caroline.lahman@navy.mil ).

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Government Cloud Computing Value Survey

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:23:00 +0000

As part of a continuing Government Cloud computing education program, Dataline, LLC has released a Government Cloud Computing Value Survey. This online resource has been designed as an aid to help Federal agencies explore the value of cloud computing. Through a 15 minute interactive session, this survey will:

Provide a high level cloud computing tutorial;
Explain the Federal Cloud Computing Initiative;
Give an overview of Apps.gov cloud computing solutions; and
Present possible cloud computing business value statements.

Referencing a recent Booz Allen Hamilton cloud computing economic analysis, the survey includes a easy-to-use series of questions designed to efficiently work through some of the key cloud computing value statements. A Cloud Computing Cost/Benefit Ratio calculator is also included.

Calculator results provide only a representative example of the economic business case for cloud computing. The results should not be used for actual budget planning. The model used is derived from summary results of a Booz Allen Hamilton life-cycle cost (LCC) estimate of public, private, and hybrid clouds. That analysis assumes a 3-year transition period from a status quo (SQ) described as a 1000-server, unvirtualized datacenter. For each scenario, investment costs are incurred from FY10 to FY12 and includes (depending on the scenario) hardware procurement and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software license fees; contractor labor required for installation, configuration, and testing; and technical and planning support (i.e., system engineering and program management costs) before and during the cloud migration.

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"Hyper-Standardized" Cloud Computing Environment a Plus for DISA

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Henry Sienkiewcz, DISA Computer Services Technical Director, credits the cloud computing "hyper-standardized" environment for the improvement they have been able to deliver through their cloud computing initiative. During remarks at this week's Federal Executive Forum taping, he specified faster service delivery, higher quality, lower cost and increased security as important cloud computing benefits.

Joining him on the program was:

Robert Carey - Navy Chief Information Officer; and
Mike Krieger- Army Deputy Chief Information Officer, Office of the Secretary of the Army

The panel discussed the progress of Cloud Computing in the Federal Government, best practices including the DISA RACE program, challenges still ahead, lessons learned, and the vision for the future. The complete show will be webcast on November 10, 2009 at 2:00 pm.

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Army Deputy CIO Cites Army/DISA Cloud Computing Partnership

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:36:00 +0000

This week's Federal Executive Forum taping highlighted collaboration between DISA and the Army on the service's transition to cloud computing. Army Deputy Chief Information Officer Mike Krieger called it a partnership, important to the support of Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) activities.

Joining him on the program was:

Robert Carey - Navy Chief Information Officer; and
Henry Sienkiewcz- Technical Program Director, Computer Services, Defense Information Systems Agency

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Navy CIO Discusses Cloud Computing

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0000

During this week's Federal Executive Forum taping, Navy CIO Robert Carey discussed his views on cloud computing. Stating that the NGEN and CANES (Navy Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services) programs will both leverage cloud computing, he also describes a future of "grey clouds" on each ship.

Joining him on the program was:

Mike Krieger- Army Deputy Chief Information Officer, Office of the Secretary of the Army
Henry Sienkiewcz- Technical Program Director, Computer Services, Defense Information Systems Agency

The panel discussed the progress of Cloud Computing in the Federal Government, best practices including the DISA RACE program, challenges still ahead, lessons learned, and the vision for the future.

The complete show will be webcast on November 10, 2009 at 2:00 pm.

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DoD, DHS and FBI Highlight Identity Management Interoperability

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:00:00 +0000

During this week's Federal Executive Forum, key decision makers from DoD, DHS and FBI highlighted identity management interoperability as their key priority for 2010. Panelist included:

Robert Mocny, Acting Director, US-VISIT Program Department of Homeland Security;
Stephen Morris, Criminal Justice Information Services Division, FBI; and
Thomas Dee, Director, Defense Biometrics, Office of the Secretary of Defense

In fulfilling his responsibility for provide policy and programmatic oversight on DoD biometric programs, Mr. Dee indicated that his priority was to institutionalize proven identity management capabilities honed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr. Morris' top priority is to establish interoperability among DoD, FBI and DHS biometric databases even though information is already shared daily during millions of transactions.

Citing the 10-finger print match capability with the FBI as a major improvement, Mr. Mocny echoed the other panelist adding that the next priority is to get a hardwire between the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS), the DHS Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) and the DoD Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS).

The complete show, "Identity Management-Progress & Best Practices", will be webcast on October 27, 2009 at 2:00 pm.

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EuroCloud Launches !!

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:32:00 +0000

Congratulations to Pierre-Jose Billotte for the successful launch of EuroCloud !!

Established as a pan European network, EuroCloud are communities that represent a knowledgeable network of companies engaged local and European activities related to SaaS and cloud computing. The network is organized in two tiers with a national level (France, Spain, England, Belgium, etc.) and a European level. The national level focuses on local topics while the European level addresses European topics,under the EuroCloud brand (or another if appropriate in a national setting). Only companies who have an interest in Cloud Computing and participate in the Cloud ecosystem can be members of the network. EuroCloud goals include:

Building relationships with the European authorities (Commission and Parliament) to help recognise the Cloud Computing industry as the future of IT in Europe and to promote a stimulating environment for development and growth of the industry;
Promote business relationships between members throughout Europe and internationally with counterparts such as SIIA; and
Promote technological relationships between members throughout Europe and internationally.

Companies listed below support the EuroCloud initiative, combining their expertise, experience and insight of the SaaS ecosystem to lead to better solutions for our customers.

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Government Cloud Economics

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:11:00 +0000

In the The Economics of Cloud Computing, Gwen Morton and Ted Alford have published an EXCELLENT economic evaluation of the federal government's push to cloud computing. Anyone interested in this market should definitely read it, analyse it, and believe it !! The conclusion acknowledges the value of cloud computing, but also offers these practical considerations:

It will take, on average, 18-24 months for most agencies to redirect funding to support this transition, given the budget process.

Some up-front investment will be required, even for agencies seeking to take advantage of public cloud options.

Implementations may take several years, depending on the size of the agency and the complexity of the cloud model it selects (i.e., public, private, or hybrid).

It could take as long as 4 years for the accumulated savings from agency investments in cloud computing to offset the initial investment costs; this timeframe could be longer if implementations are improperly planned or inefficiently executed.

Final recommendations are:

OMB, GSA, and other organizations, such as National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), should provide timely, well-coordinated support-in the form of necessary standards, guidance, policy decisions, and issue resolution-to ensure agencies have the necessary tools to efficiently plan and carry out migrations to cloud environments. As the length of the migration period increases, the potential economic benefits of the migration decrease.

OMB and GSA should seek to identify those agencies with the highest near-term IT costs and expedite their migration to the cloud.

To encourage steady progress, OMB should establish a combination of incentives and disincentives; e.g., consider allowing agencies to retain a small percentage of any savings realized from cloud computing for investments in future initiatives. To monitor progress and heighten transparency and accountability, OMB could incorporate cloud-related metrics into the new government-wide IT dashboard.

Agencies should consider which of the high-level scenarios described in this article best suits their needs, with the understanding that regardless of scenario chosen, proper planning and efficient execution are critical success factors from an economic perspective.

Given the significant impact of scale efficiencies, agencies selecting a private cloud approach should fully explore the potential for interdepartmental and interagency collaboration and investment (consistent with emerging OMB and GSA guidance). This, in effect, leads to the fourth cloud deployment model-the community cloud. A community cloud is a collaboration between private cloud operators to share resources and services.

Agencies should identify the aspects of their current IT workload that can be transitioned to the cloud in the near term to yield "early wins" to help build momentum and support for the migration to cloud computing.

Definitely a must read !!

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Deputy CIA CIO Newest Ulitzer Author

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:06:00 +0000

Jill Tummler Singer, Deputy Chief Information Officer at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is now a Ulitzer author. Appointed in November 2006, Ms Singer is responsible for ensuring CIA has the information, technology, and infrastructure necessary to effectively execute its missions. Prior to her appointment as Deputy CIO, she served as the Director of the Diplomatic Telecommunications Service (DTS), United States Department of State, and was responsible for global network services to US foreign missions.

Speaking at the recent GovIT Expo in Washington DC, Ms Singer highlighted cloud computing as an important CIO tool for quick and rapid provisioning of infrastructure to support business needs.

" Cloud computing makes all of this possible through inexpensive, commodity-based components that you can daisy chain together with a few clicks on the keyboard. You need temporary storage or fast dedication of storage to a new effort; the storage cloud can do that. If you need compute power, you can call up a dozen new servers to improve processing time and then decommission those servers when your peak has subsided. Or, if you need on-demand security services to process sensitive data, Cloud Computing can give you a private enclave with a full suite of security services in a matter of minutes and not months."

The full text of her remarks are available in Defining Enterprise Cloud Computing. (http://jillsinger.sys-con.com/node/1141476)

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Leading Federal Integrators Address Tactical Cloud Computing

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:31:00 +0000

Yesterday during the first annual Government IT Conference and Expo, tactical cloud computing was cited as a critical component within this new paradigm. Joining me to address the issue were:

Kartik Mecheri, the Chief Technologist for a large government contract for Unisys Federal Division. He is a leader in designing transformational modernization strategies building on enterprise SOA, BPMS, and asset re-use;
Melvin Greer, Senior Research Engineer, SOA / Cloud Computing Chief Architect, and Director SOA Competency Center, Lockheed Martin, Advanced Technologies Office; and
David Ayoub, the CTO for the GEOINT Research Development & Technology Division of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in McLean, Virginia.

Links to presentations from the event are below:

Dataline SOA-R

SAIC Next-Gen Transformational IT

Unisys Service Oriented Self Adaptive Systems

Lockheed Martin Deployment Cloud Design Patterns

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Carpathia Creates Government Solutions Business Unit

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:00:00 +0000

In a strong statement of focus, Carpathia Hosting has announced the formation of Carpathia Government Solutions, a unit dedicated to providing solutions specifically for federal civilian and defense agencies. This move was a direct result of the company's recent acquisition of ServerVault and looks to be a strong bid to provide secure managed cloud solutions to the federal marketplace.

The new business unit boasts ATOs (Authority to Operate) for over 20 federal agencies, support for private agency networks and an active facility clearance. During my interview with General Manager Seth Finkel their intent to redefine the federal hosting market was clear. According to Seth, their solution portfolio will range from traditional co-location and managed hosting to federally-compliant cloud services delivered via the most secure, federally-compliant hosting facility in the world.

"I’m thrilled to be leading an impressive team dedicated to the delivery of a comprehensive suite of secure, compliant solutions for federal agencies and other public sector organizations," said Finkel. "With Carpathia Hosting and ServerVault joining forces, we now have ten datacenters across the country and an expanded services portfolio that can leverage our proven Federally Compliant Application Platform(FCAP). The range and overall value of the IT services that CGS offers the government market is second to none in the industry."

Prior to the acquisition, Finkel led sales, sales engineering, marketing, product and business development efforts for ServerVault, including new customer acquisition, account management, channel and partner development, and other activities pertaining to product development/marketing, revenue generation and retention. Before ServerVault, Finkel was a key executive within PSINet’s global Web hosting business. He helped grow the business unit from infancy to a multi-national presence and $100M+ annual revenue. Finkel also held positions at MCI and American Management Systems (now CGI).

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INPUT FedFocus 2010

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:17:00 +0000

Please join me at the 7th Annual FedFocus Conference, November 5, 2009, at the Ritz Carlton in McLean, VA. This conference has been designed to provide crucial information on upcoming federal government procurement plans. I will be the morning keynote, speaking on the use of cloud computing technologies to increase government efficiency and transparency. The rest of the day's speakers include:

Vish Sankaran,Program Director, Federal Health Architecture, Officer of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology,U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (featured here on June 22nd)

Jim Borland,Special Advisor for Health IT,Office of the Commissioner, Social Security Administration (featured here on June 25th)

Capt. Michael Weiner,Medical Corps, U.S. Navy, Acting Deputy Program Manager and Chief Medical Officer, Defense Health Information Management System

Bruce McConnell,Cybersecurity Counselor to Deputy Under Secretary Philip Reitinger, National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD),U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS Asst. Sec. for Cybersecurity Greg Schaffer featured here August 11th)

David W. Stender, CISSP,Associate Chief Information Officer for Cyber Security, Chief Information Security Officer,Internal Revenue Service

Dr. Ron Ross,Senior Computer Scientist and Information Security Researcher, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Dr. Richard W. Etter, CISSP,Acting Senior Information Assurance Officer, Department of the Navy

Pete Crichlow,IT Security Staff, US Department of Justice

The day's highlights will also include an in-depth review of the top 20 federal opportunities for 2010, budget outlook for civilian and defense spending in 2010, national cybersecurity initiative and implications for the market and a Health IT forecast.

UPDATE:

There were 300+ attendees at the FedFocus session on government cloud computing. Thank you all for attending. As requested, my presention is now available via Slideshare.

Input Fed Focus 2010 Presentation

View more documents from Kevin Jackson.

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Dataline, Lockheed Martin, SAIC, Unisys on Tactical Cloud Computing

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:09:00 +0000

I'm proud to announce that representatives from Lockheed Martin, SAIC, and Unisys will join me in a Tactical Cloud Computing "Power Panel" at SYS-CON's 1st Annual Government IT Conference & Expo in Washington DC on October 6, 2009.

As Technical Chair of this conference, my goal has been to provide useful and actionable information to the conference attendees. While the industry has engaged in a rigorous discussion around "enterprise" cloud computing, information on tactical or deployable cloud computing possibilities has been scarce. To address this, I've asked Dataline partners to join me and share their views on this issue.

Tactical Cloud Computing refers to the use of cloud computing technology and techniques for the support of localized and short-lived information access and processing requirements. Use cases could include:

“Cloudbursting” to support cyclic data processing requirements
Establishing a cloud-based collaboration environment in order to coordinate firefighting resources during a wildfire
Virtually binding shipboard IT infrastructures in order to create a battlegroup infrastructure-as-a-service platform
Virtually binding land vehicle based servers and storage resources into a battlefield data center
Dynamic provisioning of virtual cloud-based servers in order to automate exploitation and dissemination of unmanned air vehicle (UAV) streaming video feeds
This discussion panel will explore how defense, homeland security and law enforcement organizations are looking to leverage this new and exciting IT capability.

Please register and join us for this unique opportunity. First 50 registrants are eligible for a VIP pass !!

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GSA, DoD and NCOIC to Collaborate on Government Cloud Computing

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:23:00 +0000

Yesterday, during the NCOIC Cloud Computing Workshop, collaboration seemed to be the focus as Katie Lewin, GSA Cloud Computing Initiative Program manager, and Dan Risacher, DoD Cloud Computing Storefront project lead, both offered to collaborate on cloud computing with the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC). As the interim chairman of the NCOIC Cloud Computing Working Group (CCWG), I welcomed the offer and promised that the NCOIC will do it's part and serve as their "industry panel" in this quickly evolving space.

In line with the NCOIC mission, the CCWG was chartered to collaborate and engage with other cloud activities to look at standards-based solutions specifically for government mission areas. The overarching goal is to ensure peer-to-peer cloud interoperability, improve usability/trust of the cloud and establish portability across clouds. In support of the established NCOIC Integrated Project Teams (IPTs), the CCWG will work to establishment cloud computing standards in the following mission areas:

Aviation
Command, Control & Communications Interoperability
Net Enabled Emergency Response
Sense & Respond Logistics
Maritime; and
Cyber Security

To accomplish it's task, CCWG member have identified current industry activities as input

sources to specific NCOIC deliverables. This roadmap will be used to initially guide the working

groups activities.

Yesterday's NCOIC Cloud Computing Workshop impressive list of speakers included:

Katie Lewin, Chief of Staff, Program Manager, Cloud Computing Initiative GSA Office of the Chief Information Officer - Federal Cloud Initiative
Brand Niemann - Senior Enterprise Architect, US EPA - Semantic Cloud Computing & Open Linked Data Pattern
Dan Risacher Enterprise Services & Integration Office of the DoD CIO - Cloud Computing and the DoD CIO Storefront
MG Stephen Gross (USAFR) NEER IPT Chair Deputy Director Deloitte & Touche Center for Cyber Innovation - Using a CloudComputing Model to Establish Net-Enabled Emergency Response (NEER) Core Services
Dr. Craig A. Lee, President, Open Grid Forum - Driving Coordination and Progress in Cloud Standards
Nils Puhlmann, Cloud Security Alliance - Cloud Security
Peter Mell, NIST, Information Technology Laboratory - A Roadmap for Cloud Standards
Robert Vietmeyer, Forge.mil Project Director - Forge.mil Overview
John Willis - Cloud Computing Use Case Group - Cloud Computing Use Cases

For further information on the NCOIC Cloud Computing Working Group, please contact Tim Thomas, tim.thomas@ncoic.org (membership) or Patricia Perlini, patricia.perlini@verizon.net (Public Relations).

UPDATE:

During the second day of the NCOIC Plenary session the Services Working Group held a great follow-up session that included a brief from Henry Sienkiewicz, Technical Program Director, Computing Services at DISA. His Cloud Computing: A perspective, provides an excellent overview of the Rapid Access Computing Environment (RACE), the GIG Content Delivery Service (GCDS) and Forge.mil, DISA's collaborative platform for software development

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FederalNewsRadio Highlights Government Cloud Computing

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:42:00 +0000

Last week's Apps.gov announcement was the latest steps in the government's "at the quick step" march into cloud computing. FederalNewsRadio, a Washington metro area media fixture, highlighted the event with an interview with GSA CIO Casey Coleman and the Associate Administrator for the GSA Office of Citizen Services, Dave McClure.

"This is just the beginning of a long, multi-year process for the federal government to realize the promise of cloud computing," said Coleman. "The Cloud will help to operate at a lower cost, to operate in a more sustainable, more green fashion and be able to implement solutions more quickly and get to mission values more rapidly which will help to serve the tax payers better."

McClure also explained that agencies will now have the option of buying a service. "It comes at a metered price based on usage, demand and capacity that you are shooting for. If you need more, you can buy more but you don't have to buy more than you need."

USA.gov is one of the first programs to use the cloud. According to McClure, so far the website has saved $1.7 million in infrastructure. He also highlighted the site's time efficiency stating that what used to take USA.gov weeks or months to update now takes just minutes or at most a day.
Ms. Coleman chimed in saying, "Agility is the number one benefit of cloud computing. Cost savings is number two."

Coleman also thinks the cloud may one day be even more secure than the current programs.

"There are not that many federal security experts out there so if we can put them all together, sharing information on the cloud, then they could protect the system even more than they do now."

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NCOIC Officially Launches Cloud Computing Working Group

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:12:00 +0000

On Wednesday, 9 September 2009 the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) Technical Council formally approved the creation of a Cloud Computing Working Group (CCWG). Organizationally this new working group will operate as part of the Specialized Frameworks Functional Team.

The initial CCWG charter provides the following direction to the group:

Collaboration & engagement with government Cloud activities, standard bodies, vendors and NCOIC member companies to look at standards-based Cloud Computing to achieve capabilities such as peer-to-peer interoperability, improved usability and trust of the cloud, and portability across clouds.
Document current state of best practices, architectures and blue prints for commercially-available implementations, including examining security implications and how to implement an internal cloud.

- “In-Field”, Edge, and Enterprise Clouds - dynamic integration of capability, resource, and accepted configurations to solve a business/operational need

- “Infrastructure cloud" standards to develop consensus across vendors to reduce lock-in to a given vendor or platform.

- Develop Net-Centric Patterns on well developed instances

- Layered Quality of Service for Cloud Computing

Explore the effects between the cloud computing paradigm and other NCOIC deliverables like NIF, NCAT etc., including adding our Cloud Computing taxonomy to the NCOIC Lexicon.

Kevin Jackson (Dataline, LLC) will serve as the groups interim chairman while Robert Marcus (SRI International) was designated as the interim Vice-Chairman. Formal elections for all leadership positions will be scheduled within the month.

The CCWG is enjoying strong NCOIC membership support with a roster that includes representation from the following companies:

BAE Systems
Boeing
Cisco Systems
Dataline, LLC
EADS
Finmeccanica
Harris Corporation
IBM
Lockheed Martin Corporation
OASD(NII) / DoD CIO
SRI International
The MITRE Corporation

For additional information, feel free to contact any of the following:

Kevin Jackson, kevin.jackson@dataline.com
Robert Marcus, robert.marcus@sri.com
TIm Thomas, tim.thomas@ncoic.org

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1 Billion Mobile Cloud Computing Subscribers !!

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:52:00 +0000

Yes. That's what I said! A recent EDL Consulting article cites the rising popularity of smartphones and other advanced mobile devices as the driving force behind a skyrocketing mobile cloud computing market.

According to ABI Research, the current figure for mobile cloud computing subscribers worldwide in 2008 was 42.8 million, representing 1.1 percent of all mobile subscribers. The 2014 figure of 998 million will represent almost 19 percent of all mobile subscribers. They also predicted that business productivity applications will take the lead in mobile cloud computing applications, including collaborative document sharing, scheduling, and sales force automation.

"The major platform-as-a-service providers - Force.com, Google and Amazon - are expected to start "aggressively" marketing their mobile capabilities starting in 2010. An earlier study from ABI Research reported that mobile cloud computing will generate annual revenues of more than $20 billion by 2014."

With that recent bit of news, let's look back at an August Government Computer News article:

The U.S. Postal Service has equipped nearly 9,500 senior and operational managers with BlackBerrys, giving them access to real-time information and alerts they need to make decisions about services USPS provides to the public.
The Census Bureau has deployed the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system on 140,000 handheld personal digital assistants that census workers use during the decennial head count.
Users of Army Knowledge Online (AKO) will be able to access and send sensitive information through a secure mobile platform using Windows Mobile devices.

And.......

President Barack Obama, for whom security is paramount, kept his BlackBerry after taking office — but not before it was locked down with strong encryption and security provisions to protect e-mail and communications with his inner circle.

As my friend James Urquhart put it in his recent Wisdom of the Clouds post, enterprise cloud computing has indeed come of age.

"[O]ne has to wonder as application architectures adjust to cloud computing, how much longer they are going to be tightly coupled to data center architectures. At what point will it no longer be advantageous for application owners to define infrastructure in terms of servers, storage, and security devices?"

The timing of secure cloud computing technologies and secure mobile devices couldn't have been better.

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NCOIC Holding Full-Day Cloud Computing Workshop

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:47:00 +0000

The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium will be holding an all day Cloud Computing Workshop on September 21, 2009 in Fairfax, VA. Open to the public, this workshop will focus on Net-Centric Standards and Best Practices for Cloud Storefronts and Cloud Computing Support for Tactical Networks. Invited speakers include:

Katie Lewin from the General Services Administration with insight into the US Federal Cloud Computing Initiative
Dan Risacher (OSD-NII) on the US Department of Defense cloud computing activities
Peter Tseronis, Department of Energy Deputy CIO and Chair, Federal CIO Cloud Computing Working Group
Craig Lee on the Cloud Standards Coordination Group
Peter Mell of the National Institute of Standards and Technology
John Willis co-author of the Cloud Use Cases Group's, Cloud Computing Use Cases White Paper
Rob Vietmeyer of the Defense Information Systems Agency

The NCOIC is a unique collaboration of premier leaders in the aerospace, defense, information technology, large-scale integrator and services industries. The Consortium works in tandem with customers from around the world, each with a specific mission, to provide a set of tools that enable the development of network centric capabilities and products. An example of the consortium's unique capabilities the recent agreement between NCOIC and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to advance the Enterprise Architecture of NextGen, FAA’s national airspace (NAS) transformation program. The NCOIC will analyze and evaluate NextGen’s enterprise architecture views, products, plans, net-centric patterns and operational concepts. Working collaboratively, its members will develop “voice of industry” recommendations about applying net-centric standards to the NextGen procurement, as a way to achieve interoperability in the NAS and, potentially, the skies beyond U.S. borders.

Registration for the workshop is available at https://www.ncoic.org/events/plenaries_council/

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Pentagon Reviews Unisys Stealth

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0000

According to a Newtworkworld.com article, the United States Joint Forces Command (USJFC) is currently evaluating Unisys Stealth technology at the Joint Transformation Command for Intelligence (JTC-I) in Suffolk, Virginia.

"Unisys Stealth Solution for Network lets an organization set up “communities of interest” through a group policy using Microsoft Active Directory, with session-specific encryption keys scrambling data that can only be decrypted by those belonging to each group. Stealth works to “bit-split” data into multiple packets and re-assemble it to authorized users, which alone can decrypt it."

A Unisys press release further states that USJFCOM will be testing "cryptographic bit-splitting" as a way to converge DoD Global Information Grid networks operating at different security levels into a single network infrastructure.

"This technology can address a longstanding challenge for the Department of Defense and other government agencies: how to simplify their networks without sacrificing security, while delivering significant cost savings," said Jim Geiger, managing partner, Department of Defense, Unisys Federal Systems. "Unisys will draw upon its extensive experience with the Unisys Stealth Solution for Networks to support the Joint Forces Command and the Joint Transformation Command for Intelligence in this pioneering effort to promote secure data and information sharing among various communities within the DoD. This solution is now the double-encryption security mechanism protecting the Unisys Secure Cloud solution."

In my December 2008 post I described cryptographic bit splitting as a new approach for securing information. Its advantages inclue:

Enhanced security from moving shares of the data to different locations on one or more data depositories or storage devices (different logical, physical or geographical locations
Shares of data can be split physically and under the control of different personnel reducing the possibility of compromising the data.
A rigorous combination of the steps is used to secure data providing a comprehensive process of maintaining security of sensitive data.
Data is encrypted with a secure key and split into one or more shares
Lack of a single physical location towards which to focus an attack

My company, Dataline LLC, is also leveraging this technology during the Trident Warrior '10 fall lab experimentation period. As I posted in US Navy Experiment With Secure Cloud Computing, the Secure Cloud Computing experiment has been designed to explore the use of a commercial Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform as a viable means of supporting a specified subset of US Navy mission requirements for global connectivity, server failover and application access. Goals for the experiment include:

Demonstrating the establishment and use of trusted communication paths on a global public computing infrastructure; and
Demonstrating dynamic, mission driven, provisioning of information via trusted communication paths on a global public computing infrastructure

I'll keep you posted on the outcome of both DoD activities.

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"Cash for Clunkers" Should Have Used the Cloud!

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:09:00 +0000

Rich Bruklis wrote an excellent essy on how the government missed a perfect opportunity to use cloud computing. In "Cloud Opportunity Missed" he writes:

"It appears that the voucher system set up to handle dealer claims was crushed by unusual high demand. Now 'unusual high demand' to me is synonymous with cloud computing."

He also cited three drivers that caused the problem:

- The high popularity surprised the auto industry which forecasted that the program wouldn't have a major effect on sales.

- The dealer sales people ‘pre-sold' the program to customers causing an initial rush to the Cash for Clunkers web site and crashed the system.

- The Transportation Department officials were presented with just 30 days to get the program up and running.

As Rich also noted, it seems that the Government instictively relied on less automation, not more, by adding 700 more human claims processors to the original 300 midway through the program.

Why didn't they consider cloud computing !! SCRATCH THAT!!

Update: Apparently they did use cloud computing !! According to a Washington Post article, Oracle OnDemand application was used:

"Administration officials said the On Demand program, produced by Oracle, allowed Cash for Clunkers to keep running even as consumer interest in it rose in the initial days by more than 10 times the government's projections."

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US Navy Experiments With Secure Cloud Computing

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:00:00 +0000

This week in San Diego, CA the US Navy held the initial planning conference for Trident Warrior '10. The Trident Warrior series is the premier annual FORCEnet Sea Trial Event sponsored by Naval Network Warfare Command (NETWARCOM). FORCEnet’s experimental results are incorporated into a definitive technical report used to develop Military Utility Assessment (MUA) recommendations. This report is provided to the Sea Trial Executive Steering Group (STESG) for consideration and acquisition recommendations.

The primary goal of FORCEnet experimentation is to influence accelerated fielding of improved Command and Control (C2) capabilities to the fleet through Program of Record (POR) acceleration or transition of new technologies into PORs. Additional goals include evaluating Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP) that best exploit, promote, expand, and incorporate new FORCEnet capabilities in support of optimizing execution of Naval operations; increasing warfighter effectiveness through discovery and development of enhanced capabilities; and encouraging Government, industry, and academia use of experimentation to advance new concepts and capabilities.

This year, for the first time, the event has been expanded to include a lab-based venue designed to experiment with lower Technology Readiness Level (TRL) candidates. The goal of this added activity is to demonstrate technologies that have the potential to fill mid- and far-term warfighting gaps. One of these lab-based experiments is secure cloud computing.

Sponsored by Dataline, LLC, the Secure Cloud Computing experiment has been designed to explore the use of a commercial Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform as a viable means of supporting a specified subset of US Navy mission requirements for global connectivity, server failover and application access. Goals for the experiment include:

Demonstrating the establishment and use of trusted communication paths on a global public computing infrastructure; and
Demonstrating dynamic, mission driven, provisioning of information via trusted communication paths on a global public computing infrastructure

Working with Amazon Web Services and Security First Corporation, the Dataline-led team will explore the ability of cloud computing technologies to support humanitarian assistance and disaster relief military missions. As currently planned, the test scenario will simulate the secure use of a cloud-based collaboration environment. Both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration technologies will be leveraged. Information and data access among multiple operational groups will be dynamically managed based on simulated ad-hoc mission requirements. Expected mission advantages of this new approach include:

Increased IT infrastructure resiliency through the use of dynamic and automatic provisioning of compute and storage resources;
The ability to provide virtually unlimited IT infrastructure scalability through the elastic nature of an infrastructure-as-a-service platform; and
Increased mission flexibility through a globally distributed and accessible IT infrastructure that is also open to use by Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), civilian first responders and non-US military forces.

The use of a government sponsored "Red Team" is also being requested as a means of validating the security of the proposed infrastructure.

For further information on the Trident Warrior lab based experiments, please contact LCDR Caroline Lahman ( caroline.lahman@navy.mil )

For further information on the Dataline Secure Cloud Computing experiment, please contact Kevin Jackson (kevin.jackson@dataline.com)

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TRIDENT WARRIOR '09

GSA To Present On Cloud Initiative at NCOIC Plenary

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:00:00 +0000

A General Services Administration (GSA) representative is now scheduled to provide a briefing on the agency's cloud computing initiative during a "Best Practices for Cloud Initiatives using Storefronts" session on September 21, 2009 in Fairfax, VA. The session, part of the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) Plenary, is expected to foster an interactive dialog on interoperability and portability standards for Federal cloud computing deployments.

Through the recent release of a Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) Request for Quote (RFQ), the GSA has positioned itself as a significant participant in the federal government's move toward the use of cloud computing technologies. Casey Coleman, GSA CIO, has previously stated that cloud computing is the best way for government technology to move forward. To support this effort, the agency is encouraging an active dialog with industry on possible future

standardization issues such as:

Interfaces to Cloud Resources supporting portability of PaaS tools and SaaS applications;
Interfaces to Cloud Resources supporting interoperability across Clouds;
Sharing and/or movement of virtual computational resources across Clouds;
Data sharing and movement across Clouds;
Authentication and authorization across Clouds;
Messaging to and from Clouds; and
Metering, monitoring and management across Clouds.

Although responses to the current RFQ are expected to have been submitted by the plenary session date, changes in the GSA IaaS procurement schedule could result in the postponement of the GSA briefing.

Registration for the plenary is now available at https://www.ncoic.org/events/plenaries_council/ .

CLICK FOR RELATED POST

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FAA CIO Focuses on Cybersecurity

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:00:00 +0000

During this week Federal Executive Forum, FAA CIO Dave Bowen mentioned protection against software vulnerabilities, wireless intrusion and website vulnerabilities as his top cybersecurity priorities.

As the Assistant Administrator for Information Services and Chief Information Officer for the Federal Aviation Administration, Mr. Bowen is the principal advisor to the FAA Administrator on the agency's information technology and directs strategic planning for information technology across the agency. He also oversees the implementation of the FAA's Information Systems Security, E-Government, Shared Services, and Process Improvement Programs.

The entire interview will be broadcast on August 13th, 2009 at 2:00pm during this week's Federal Executive Forum on Federal News Radio. These 1 hour radio and video programs are produced and broadcast monthly in Washington, DC and feature 3-4 Top Government IT Executives discussing mission critical issues. The programs always include some of the top federal government technology leaders. This weeks forum is sponsored by:

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DHS Asst. Secretary Addresses Cybersecurity Priorities

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Greg Schaffer, Assistant Secretary for CyberSecurity & Communications for the US Department of Homeland Security, sees Trusted Internet Connections, EINSTEIN, and front line defense of the nation's networks as top cybersecurity priorities for the department. His views were shared during this weeks Federal Executive Forum.

As Assistant Secretary for CS&C, Schaffer will work within the National Protection Programs Directorate to lead the coordinated efforts of CS&C and its components, including the National Cyber Security Division, the Office of Emergency Communications, and the National Communications System. He will engage the public and private sectors as well as international partners to prepare for, prevent, and respond to catastrophic incidents that could degrade or overwhelm the nation's strategic cyber and communications infrastructure.

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US DoD Chief Security Officer on Cybersecurity Priorities

kevin.jackson@dataline.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:00:00 +0000

In a Federal Executive Forum interview, Robert Lentz, Chief Security Officer for the US Department of Defense, highlighted the departments cybersecurity priorities.

Mr. Lentz is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber, Identity and Information Assurance (CI&IA) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Networks and Information Integration/Chief Information Officer. Since November 2000, he has been the Chief Information Assurance Officer (CIAO) for the Department of Defense (DoD) and, in this capacity, oversees the Defense-wide IA Cyber Program, which plans, monitors, coordinates, and integrates IA Cyber activities across DoD.

Along with the need to increase network speed and hardening, Mr. Lentz also mentioned efforts to increase the number of "cyber defenders" from the current 45,000. Other priorities include:

Insuring that information can flow from the cloud all the way to the edge
Helping defense industrial partners increase their cybersecurity posture
Implementing a robust identity management infrastructure; and
Increasing cybersecurity education, training and awareness

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