Cloud Musings by Kevin L. Jackson

Joining NJVC: A Professional Plateau

kvjacksn@gmail.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:00:00 +0000

This week I begin a new and exciting phase of my professional career by joining the NJVC Enterprise Management Team!

For those unfamiliar, NJVC is one of the largest information technology (IT) solutions providers supporting the United States Department of Defense. The company provides quality IT solutions to the federal government and specializes in supporting intelligence, defense and geospatial organizations, including its largest customer, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). NJVC has more than 1,100 employees located in three offices, including its headquarters in Vienna, Va., and facilities in Arnold and St. Louis, Mo.

In joining the company as an Engineering Fellow, my initial and complementary duties will be to:

Serve as an Enterprise Management Officer on a team of watch officers responsible for delivering high satisfaction to our customers through efficient management of day-to-day activities; and
Support the company's newly announced cloud computing solution, specifically designed to address the unique security requirements of the intelligence and defense communities.

As my regular readers know, the use of cloud computing technologies to support DoD and intelligence community missions is a personal passion. NJVC is realizing this promise by implementing a secure, reliable and cost-effective private cloud solution powered by the Appistry CloudIQ Platform. I am proud to join NJVC in providing this solution offering to its customers, allowing them to concentrate resources on their core missions. The value of the cloud computing approach was clearly demonstrated during a secure cloud computing pilot study at the company's Center for Technology Integration facility, which accurately simulates the enterprise environment of a large intelligence community network. Pilot result analysis showed astounding performance gains.

I look forward to continuing this ongoing dialog with you, my readers, and welcome your comments and/or inquiries.

Our commitment is unwavering.
Day in and day out, our 1000+ dedicated and talented employees go to extraordinary lengths to provide the best IT services possible, so our customers are free to concentrate on their mission. NJVC provides a full lifecycle of secure, innovative ITIS solutions for some of the world's most demanding customers. With a passion for doing things faster, better and smarter - and technical expertise to deliver - NJVC is driven by your mission.

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DoD Deputy CIO on Secure Information Sharing

kvjacksn@gmail.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:12:00 +0000

Today on Federal Executive Forum, Dave Wennergren, Deputy CIO, Office of the Secretary of Defense, shared his views on secure information sharing.

Mr. David M. Wennergren serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Information Management, Integration and Technology / Deputy Chief Information Officer, providing top-level advocacy in creating a unified information management and technology vision for the Department and ensuring the delivery of the capabilities required to achieve the Department's transformation to net centric operations. In addition to his duties as Deputy CIO, Mr. Wennergren is the Vice Chair of the U.S. Government's Federal CIO Council. He also serves as the Chair of the Department of Defense Identity Protection and Management Senior Coordinating Group.

Joining Mr. Wennergren in this discussion were:

Greg Schaffer, Assistant Secretary for CyberSecurity & Communications, DHS; and
Priscilla Guthrie, CIO, Office of the Director for National Intelligence

Ms. Priscilla Guthrie joined the ODNI as the Chief Information Officer on May 26, 2009. She was previously Director of the Information Technology and Systems Division of the Institute for Defense Analyses, a non-profit corporation that administers three federally funded research and development centers to provide objective analyses of national security issues. As Assistant Secretary for CS&C, Mr. Schaffer works within NPPD 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.

See the entire discussion starting today, February 3, 2010, at 2:00pm on the Federal Executive Forum

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Training Conference: Cloud Computing for DoD & Government

kvjacksn@gmail.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:42:00 +0000

Please join me at the Cloud Computing for DoD & Government training conference, February 22-24, 2010 at the Hilton Old Town in Alexandria, VA. This unique conference agenda blends interactive workshops and actionable information with an unprecedented opportunity to network with government cloud computing leaders.

The conference kicks-off Monday with class-room style sessions where attendees will examine the strategies behind cloud standards and security. The second day features presentations from leading government cloud implementors, prepared to share their real world experiences and learnings. Speakers include:

Patrick Dowd, Chief Architect, NSA - "Requirements for Collaboration in the Cloud"
Peter Tseronis, Deputy Associate CIO, US Dept. of Energy - "The Federal Cloud Computing Initiative and the Progress-to-Date"
Dr. Stephen M. Jarrett, CTO ISR/IO/IA & Cyber Security, US Navy SPAWAR - "Securing Cloud-Based Applications"
June Hartley, CIO Department of Interior - "Application Hosting and Cloud Computing"
Henry Sienkiewicz, Technical Program Director, DISA - "Cloud Computing with RACE"

Day three is also fully loaded featuring:

Maj Gen Stephen Gross, USAFR, Mobilization Asst to the Chief of Warfighting Integration and CIO - "The USAF's Position and Initiatives in Cloud Computing"
William C. Barker, Chief Cybersecurity Advisor, NIST - "Applying Various Virtualization Techniques within the Cloud"
Peter Mell, Cloud Computing Project Lead & Senior Computer Scientist, NIST / James Tsujimoto, Office of Government Wide Policy, GSA - "Cloud Computing: Secure and Effective Use"
Dr. Mary Ann Malloy, Warfighter Architecting, The MITRE Corporation - "Tactical Cloud Computing"

I will also be giving a presentation, "Supporting DoD Operations with Cloud Computing", on the third day.

The regular price for attending this three day event is $999. Discounts are available for members of the Military, Government and Academia. I have also arranged for an additional $150 discount for "Cloud Musings" readers that sign-up for all three days. To get this special discount download the booking form and fax to (416) 597-4721 or simply call Mark Osborne at (416) 597-4721.

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Review: Executive's Guide to Cloud Computing by Eric Marks and Bob Lozano

kvjacksn@gmail.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:43:00 +0000

Recently, I had the privilege of reviewing an advance copy of Executive's Guide to Cloud Computing by Eric Marks and Bob Lozano. Available now for pre-order on Amazon, this guide is a crystal ball into the future of business. Not a technical treatise, this excellent book is an insightful description of how cloud computing can quickly sharpen the focus of information technology and line executives onto the delivery of real value. Using clear prose, Eric and Bob explain how cloud computing elevates IT from it's traditional support role into a new and prominent business position.

In Chapter 4: Strategic Implications of Cloud Computing, the reader will learn why the cloud will soon become a mainstream component of every chief information officer's toolkit. By skilfully blending business environment context and business model evolution, the authors build a strong case for the inevitability of cloud computing. For me, the key takeaway was Chapter 5: Cloud Computing Adoption Lifecycle, within which an effective and efficient methodology for adopting cloud computing was presented.

I commend Eric and Bob for producing what will soon become a leading industry reference. If you're serious about leveraging cloud computing for the business value it provides, I urge you to place your advance order today.

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DoD Cloud Computing Session at 5th International Cloud Expo

kvjacksn@gmail.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:05:00 +0000

I'm happy to announce that I will be presenting on DoD Cloud Computing Advances at the 5th International Cloud Expo, April 19-21, 2010 at the Javits Convention Center in New York City. My session will examine specific projects and mission goals that are driving the cloud computing projects at the Defense Information Systems Agency, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Registration for this event is now available. If you have any specific areas you would like for me to cover, just leave you comment or suggestion right here. I look forward to seeing you there!

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InformationWeek Prediction: Cloud Computing for Classified Software

kvjacksn@gmail.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:55:00 +0000

Yes, I know you're sick of all the predictions, but I just can't resist pointing you to Nick Hoover's "5 Predictions For Government IT in 2010". In summary:

1. Cybersecurity Will Continue To Be On The Front Burner
2. More Agencies Will Begin Forays Into Cloud Computing, Including Public Clouds
3. Transparency Won't Always Be Easy
4. Dashboards Will Push Agencies To Improve Performance Management
5. IT Procurement May See Some Tentative, Incomplete Reform

Of course, the cloud computing prediction interested me the most. According to Nick, 2010 will see early cloud computing projects moving into production and the use of cloud computing technology for classified activities via the DISA RACE program! Even with these steps forward, security and procurement will still offer challenges. Read the complete article for more.

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"Shaping Government Clouds" Just Released

kvjacksn@gmail.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:39:00 +0000

As part of the On The Frontlines series, Trezza Media Group has just released it latest on-line electronic magazine. "Shaping Government Clouds" includes:

Pete Tseronis, Chairman of the Federal Cloud Advisory Council, shares his thoughts on how to embrace clud computing possibilities;
US Army Major Larry Dillard explains how the Army Experience Center used the cloud to enhance recruiting;
Experts from Citrix, HP and SafeNet discuss how they are using the cloud in government solutions;
And much much more!!

The ezine also reveals my answer to the question "Cloud Computing: Real or Fad?".

A government cloud computing resource center is also included with cloud computing "Future Vision" video clips from:

Henry Sienkiewicz, DISA
Mike Krieger, US Army
Robert Carey, US Navy
Ron Bechtold, US Army
Curt Aubley, Lockheed Martin
David Smith, Citrix Systems
Ronald Ritchey, Booz Allen Hamilton
Tim Harder, EMC

Read it today! Or better yet, download it as an excellent reference. You too can become a government cloud shaper !!

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Fed Tech Bisnow: If Nostradamus Did RFPs?

kvjacksn@gmail.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:28:00 +0000

Nostradamus may no longer be with us, but check out the "beltway" predictions from Tech Bisnow!

"Two hot trends almost all mentioned: early uptick on M&A and cloud computing ubiquity"

SAIC guru Mike Daniels
Federal marketing wiz Mark Amtower
Winvale group managing partner Kevin Lancaster
DoD consulting guru Rob Guerra
Information Experts CEO Marissa Levin
LondonInk’s Bob London
Criterion Systems CEO Promod Sharma
Holland & Knight’s Adam August
Cisco distinguished fellow Alan Balutis

(My humble prognostication is also included.)

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Navy CANES and Cloud Computing

kvjacksn@gmail.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

During the first quarter of 2010, the Navy is expected to make the first selection for the Consolidated Afloat Network Enterprise System (CANES). CANES is just one component of the Navy’s overall strategy for its future information technology infrastructure. According to Vice Admiral Harry B. Harris, deputy chief of naval operations for communications networks and deputy chief information officer, CANES will provide 75,000 seats on 192 ships and submarines and at nine maritime operation centers across the fleet. CANES also represents the Navy’s response to fleet demands for a robust tactical network. Some also argue that CANES is the Navy’s transition to virtualization, SOA and cloud computing adoption strategy. If this discussion interest you, please read my article on the subject recently published in Military Information Technology magazine, "CANES and the Cloud".

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GovCloud, "Cloud Musings" rated "Influential" by Topsy

kvjacksn@gmail.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:15:00 +0000

Topsy

A search engine powered by tweets

My sincere appreciation and thanks goes out to Topsy for rating my tweets as "Influential"!

Topsy is a new kind of search engine that sees the Internet as a stream of conversations. By viewing people and their online conversations as a web of relationships, the Topsy engine rates how each person influences other people to read, talk and think about things. Topsy uses influence rankings to measure the likelihood that people with pay attention to a person's tweet. Influence for Twitter users is computed using all historical retweets: millons of real, public statements indicating who’s listening to whom. Roughly the top 0.2% most influential of all Twitter users are tagged “Highly Influential”, and “Influential” tags appear for the top 0.5% most influential Twitter users. Using this rating, GovCloud and "Cloud Musings" tweets were ranked as "Influential".

Thanks also goes out to my dedicated followers in the "Twitterverse"! Without your interest and valuable interactions, nothing is possible. I look forward to continuing our enlightening conversation in 2010.

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Jill Tummler Singer Appointed NRO CIO

kvjacksn@gmail.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:42:00 +0000

Effective January 1, 2010, Jill Tummler Singer will take the reigns as CIO for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). As the CIA Deputy CIO, Ms Tummler has been a proponent of cloud computing for the United States Intelligence Community (IC).

According to a recent article by Jeremy Geelan, " She believes that the cloud will provide a “faster, better, cheaper, and safer” Information Technology solution for the IC. There are shared beliefs among those in the cloud computing community that 2010 will be a break-out year for clouds - and for enterprise cloud computing, in particular. The IC is actively piloting an Enterprise cloud that will meet its unique mission and security requirements."

I, for one, share this view and see the IC community as a key early adopter of cloud computing technology. With it's pioneering efforts, the FUD (Fear, uncertainty and doubt) surrounding this new approach to providing real value in information technology will be replaced with professional reason and effective risk management. In October 2008, I actually wrote a whitepaper on the use of cloud computing by the national security community. At that time, many doubted that the government would ever embrace cloud computing. Needless to say, I'm really excited about the possibilities!!

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Most Influential Cloud Bloggers for 2009

kvjacksn@gmail.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:28:00 +0000

Thank you Ulitzer and SYS-CON Media for naming me to your list of the most influential cloud computing bloggers for 2009. My hearty congratulations go out to the other bloggers that also made the list.

Cloud computing definitely made its mark in 2009. The government space on which I focus has clearly made this a top priority. I look forward to continuing my education and advocacy role in 2010.

Happy New Year !!

The World's 30 Most influential Cloud Bloggers

Cloud Expo on Ulitzer

1	Dustin Amrhein	11	Kevin Hoffman	21	Greg O'Connor
2	Ezhil Babaraj	12	Alin Irimie	22	Maureen O'Gara
3	Tony Bishop	13	Kevin Jackson	23	Mark O'Neill
4	Reuven Cohen	14	Fuat Kircaali	24	Bill Roth
5	Ernest de Leon	15	David Linthicum	25	Ellen Rubin
6	David Dean	16	Lori MacVittie	26	John Savageau
7	Ray DePena	17	Bill McColl	27	Michael Sheehan
8	Dana Gardner	18	Paul Miller	28	Roman Stanek
9	John Gauntt	19	Louis Naugès	29	John Treadway
10	Jeremy Geelan	20	Greg Ness	30	Alan Williamson

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2009: The Government Discovers Cloud Computing

kvjacksn@gmail.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:50:00 +0000

2009 was truly a watershed year for Federal information technology professionals. After inaugurating the first Cyber-President we saw the appointment of our first Federal CIO and the rapid adoption of cloud computing as the way forward for improved efficiencies at reduced cost. The theme continued throughout the year with the Federal Cloud Computing Initiative, the Open Government Directive and finally, as if to put an exclamation point on the rising importance of IT to national security the appointment of the nation's first Cybersecurity Coordinator.

Government cloud computing is a reality and as Peter Mell of NIST succinctly put it, "2010 will be the year of the cloud computing pilot." I look forward to continuing this exciting conversation with you all!

Season's Greetings to you and yours!!

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AFCEA: Cyberspace at the Cross Roads

kvjacksn@gmail.com (Kevin L. Jackson) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:43:00 +0000

Starting December 2, 2009, the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) will be putting on a two-day cyberspace conference. Titled "Cyberspace at the Cross Roads: The Intersection of Cyber, National and Economic Security", speakers, panelists and attendees will further the dialogue between government and the private sector on key policy and technology barriers currently limiting our ability to combat the threat effectively. This program focuses on furthering the understanding of the cyber security operating environment, helping to focus the community on current cyber policy and technology initiatives, and highlighting the long term vision for improving our cyber security posture.

On Thursday, December 3rd, from 10:30a-12:n EST, I'm honored to be participating in a panel that asks the question "How do we improve cyber security at the edge?". This session will address ideas and innovations for extending cyber security beyond the classic Defense in Depth paradigm. Presenters from industry, academia, and government will discuss innovative approaches to extend cyber security to the edge of the network. Among other things, I plan to address the concept of using cloud computing to implement "maneuver warfare" for cyber defense. (See "Cloud Computing: The Dawn of Maneuver Warfare in IT Security" and "Expanding Maneuver Warfare in IT").

Moderated by Dr. J. Greg Hanson, Executive Vice President for Defense Homeland Security, Criterion Systems, other members of the panel are:

Mr. Bob Carlson, Executive Vice President, Criterion Systems;
Mr. Charles Dodd, CTO, Nicor Global; and
Mr. Ian Harper, Cyber Functional Chief Architect, CACI.

For more information and to register, go to http://www.afcea.org/events/solutions/09/cyber/intro.asp

If you can't attend in person, the event will also be broadcast over the web. Just go to http://www.afcea.org/events/solutions/09/cyber/webcast.asp

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“Cloud” Shows Promise during Navy Trident Warrior

kvjacksn@gmail.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

kvjacksn@gmail.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

kvjacksn@gmail.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

kvjacksn@gmail.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

kvjacksn@gmail.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

kvjacksn@gmail.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 !!

kvjacksn@gmail.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

kvjacksn@gmail.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

kvjacksn@gmail.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

kvjacksn@gmail.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

kvjacksn@gmail.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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