CloudGov Features Lively Discussion on Emerging Federal IT Issues: This year’s Cloud/GOV conference, held on Tuesday at the Westin City Center played to a packed house of federal IT employees and contractors. Event attendees were treated to keynote addresses from Federal CIO Steve VanRoekel, DOD DCIO Dave DeVries, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). They also heard a variety of perspectives on topics ranging from how the convergence of cloud and data analytics can make government more effective, to the latest on FedRAMP, and how to choose the right cloud solution. Making news was the announcement by GSA’s Kathy Conrad that there is an RFI in the works to look at privatizing the management of the FedRAMP 3PAOs. GCN has a good roundup on the FedRAMP discussion.
FedRAMP Grants Second Provisional ATO: Speaking of FedRAMP, the program granted its second provisional authority to operate earlier this month, to CGI Federal. CGI joins Autonomic Resources as the only two companies who have made it through the program to date. Recent reports from the Federal CIO and others note that there are some 75 or 80 companies in the pipeline to receive FedRAMP approval while GSA’s Kathy Conrad told the Cloud/GOV audience that as many as half of those who have applied might not be able to meet the program’s rigorous security baseline. We will continue to track this issue as progress is made and Federal Times has a short blog on the CGI approval.
SOTU highlights Cybersecurity: President Obama called-out cybersecurity as a priority in his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, announcing the release of the much anticipated Executive Order (EO) on cybersecurity. The EO is focused specifically on critical infrastructure protection, calling for a NIST-led multistakeholder process to identify existing consensus standards, practices and procedures that can become the basis of a voluntary “Cybersecurity Framework.” Despite the focus on critical infrastructure protection, Administration officials have clearly expressed their desire for the Framework to be adopted broadly after its completion in approximately one year, with hopes that it will be embraced beyond critical infrastructure sectors.
Cloud Adoption on the Rise: According to a recent study conducted by CDW-G of more than 1,200 IT personnel across six sectors, cloud adoption is on the rise. The report seems to track the increase in cloud use personally to an increase in cloud adoption in the workplace, essentially concluding that as people get more comfortable with cloud at home, they want that to carry-over to their place of business. Government Technology has a story with a link to the CDW-G survey.
Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG.