Policy – Cloud Computing

This Week in Public Sector Innovation

December 21, 2012 By Mike Hettinger

OMB Delays Passback Creating Uncertainty for CIOs:The ongoing debate on Capitol Hill over how to resolve the looming fiscal cliff has delayed OMB’s budget guidance, also known as passback, making it difficult for agencies to plan expenditures for the remainder of FY2013 and budgets for FY2014. Particularly in limbo, according to this Federal News Radio article are agency CIOs who have been tasked with modernizing IT systems, enhancing network security and moving commodity IT to shared service centers but feel they haven’t been provided enough information to effectively plan. Further complicating this is that once the situation is resolved, the timeframe for requests, negotiations and appeals related to the FY2014 budget cycle will be compressed.

DHS Releases Continuous Monitoring RFQ: In cybersecurity news, DHS, working through GSA, released a final RFQ this week seeking bids to meet requirements of the new Continuous Diagnostic and Mitigation program and for continuous monitoring as-a-service. The BPA includes 15 tools and 11 task areas aimed at improving DHS’s IT security. The BPA has an estimated value of $6 billion and responses are due January 28, 2013. Federal News Radio has the details.

PSIG Members Featured in 10^th Anniversary of the E-Gov Act Event: This week marked the 10^th anniversary of the E-Gov Act and SIIA PSIG Members Doug Bourgeois of VMware, Mark Forman of Government Transaction Services and David Mihalchik of Google all were featured prominently in the event marking the anniversary. Other SIIA members were included as well, including Dan Chenok of IBM and former Congressman Tom Davis, now of Deloitte. C Span covered the event, which focused on the advances made in government technology since passage of the E-Gov Act. See the video here.

Appian Receives FISMA Moderate Certification from GSA: Appian announced this week that it had received FISMA moderate certification from the General Services Administration for a major business process management application, built on Appian Cloud. Appian Cloud is built on Amazon Web Services. See the press release for more information.

Federal News Radio to host live chat with CBP CIO: Our friends at Federal News Radio are hosting a live chat on January 3^rd at 11am with DHS Customs and Border Protection CIO Charlie Armstrong and are encouraging interested parties to submit questions in advance. See the link for more details.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG.

Share|

Filed Under: Government, Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, PSIG, Public Sector Innovation Summit, Software, Software Events, Uncategorized

SIIA Welcomes State Department’s Interventions on Cloud Computing and Privacy

December 14, 2012 By Mark MacCarthy

Last week U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, William Kennard, addressed Forum Europe’s 3rd Annual European Data Protection and Privacy Conference, and responded to the myth that the U. S. system of government access to information is a threat to the privacy rights of citizens of the other countries. He was especially effective in rebutting concerns directed at cloud computing, where the misconception has developed that information stored in cloud computing servers can be accessed by the U.S. government without any effective privacy controls.

His intervention is a welcome attempt to set the record straight before these erroneous beliefs become widespread and entrenched. It was accompanied the release of State Department white paper that dispels the misconceptions about the U.S. legal system and government access to information.

The fact is that the U.S. has a well-developed and established system to protect individual liberties from government intrusion. We have a general distrust of a powerful government and are suspicious of anything that advances the growth of government power. Our bias is in favor of a limited government that lets people chose their own good in their own way. As a result we are far less tolerant of government intrusion into our private lives than other countries, and have set up a system whereby the U.S. extends privacy protections to non-U.S. citizens as well.

At the same time, the U.S. is more tolerant of the use of information for innovative and productive use by businesses than other countries, to our great advantage in the race for economic growth, business development and job creation. Our system of protecting the individual privacy in the business context shows that this can be done while maintaining strong and effective protections for consumer privacy. This system also respects the rights of non-U.S. consumers established in other privacy regimes.

None of this means that the U.S. system is perfect. We think that steps can be taken to improve the consumer privacy system for mobile app notifications and are actively working with the U.S. Commerce Department and other stakeholders on a voluntary code of conduct and an effective system of screen notices. We have joined with others in the Digital Due Process Coalition to modernize the 1986 U.S. Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which needs updating to fit the realities of email and document storage in the cloud.

But the need for these reforms does not suggest that the current U.S. system is a threat to privacy or justifies a move away from cloud computing as a way to avoid government scrutiny. Ambassador Kennard is to be commended for his strong defense of the U.S. approach to privacy in the cloud.

Mark MacCarthy, Vice President, Public Policy at SIIA, directs SIIA’s public policy initiatives in the areas of intellectual property enforcement, information privacy, cybersecurity, cloud computing and the promotion of educational technology. Follow the SIIA Public Policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPolicy

Share|

Filed Under: Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, Policy - Privacy Tagged With: cloud computing, europe, privacy

This Week in Public Sector Innovation

December 7, 2012 By Mike Hettinger

OMB to push Strategic Sourcing: This week OMB issued a memorandum expanding the use of strategic sourcing to include commodity IT purchases. In addition the memo establishes Strategic Sourcing Accountable Officers within the CFO Act agencies to be appointed by January 15, 2013. It also establishes a Strategic Sourcing Leadership Council (SSLC), chaired by OFPP, with representatives from DoD, Energy, HHS, DHS, VA, GSA and NASA and requires the SSLC to submit to OMB a set of recommendations for management strategies for goods and services to insure the government receives the most favorable offer. Lastly it requires the SSLC to identify at least 5 products or services for which new government-wide acquisition vehicles or management approaches are needed and requires GSA to implement 5 new government-wide strategic sourcing solutions in each of FY13 and FY14 and increase transparency of prices paid for common goods. Read the memo here.

GSA pulls the plug on Apps.gov: The federal government pulled the plug on Apps.gov this week. The cloud application storefront, which was the brainchild of former Federal CIO, Vivek Kundra, was intended to provide a one-stop-shop for cloud apps for the federal government and make it easier for federal IT personnel to acquire cloud services. The initiative never took off as intended. GSA didn’t give a reason for decommissioning the initiative, but noted that everything that was available through Apps.gov, would still be available through Schedule 70. Information Week has a story.

NextGov Prime highlights procurement reform, big data: NextGov held its first-ever Prime Conference at the Ronald Reagan Building this week. The event included a keynote panel featuring Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Rep. Gerry Connelly (D-VA), ranking member of the panel’s Technology Subcommittee, two leaders pushing an update to the 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act. The intent of the legislation, which SIIA has been tracking closely and which is expected to be introduced early in the next Congress, is to improve the speed and efficiency of federal IT purchasing. FCW has the wrap up. The event also had a heavy focus on big data and how data analytics can make the government more effective. FCW covers that angle as well.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG.

Share|

Filed Under: Government, Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, Public Sector Innovation Summit, Software, Software Events Tagged With: Big Data, gsa, OMB

SIIA Urges Support for Leahy ECPA Reform to Create Level Playing Field for Cloud Computing

November 28, 2012 By Ken Wasch

I issued the following statement in support of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy’s (D‐VT) substitute Manager’s Amendment to H.R. 2471, which would update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Sen. Leahy’s amendment will be considered by the Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

“SIIA supports Chairman Leahy’s proposed Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) reform in order to address the tremendous technological advances in communications and computing technology since 1986, when the statute was passed. The legislation proposed by Sen. Leahy would create a warrant requirement for law enforcement access to remotely stored electronic content. This legislation presents a big step toward making sure that the information Americans store in the cloud receives the same level of protection as the information stored in their homes.

“SIIA commends Sen. Leahy’s Leadership on this very important issue, and we urge members of the Judiciary Committee to support the substitute manager’s amendment while opposing any amendments that would weaken the warrant requirement.”

Ken Wasch is President of SIIA.

Share|

Filed Under: Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing and Its Green Lining: Responses to James Glanz and the New York Times

October 17, 2012 By Tracy Carlin

Author James Glanz created a stir in September with his New York Times article, when he wrote that cloud computing and Big Data are actually big energy wasters. I have written about this controversy previously for the SIIA and have found that not to be the case. In fact, data centers are environmentally friendly for three reasons:

Large data centers are more efficient than small and medium-sized data centers, so regardless of this looking negative at first blush, the electricity/unit of computing is less.
Devices themselves are using less energy especially as desk tops and laptops give way to tablets and smartphones,
Cloud data centers can and will drive to renewable energy, as detailed in this report. Companies like Oracle, Adobe, and IBM are devoting their considerable resources to sustainable computing practices, and this trend will only increase as they continue to work to make data centers more efficient and clean.

A number of voices have come out in support of cloud computing’s environmental benefits for these very reasons. The New York Times hosted quite a few on their Room for Debate page. Here is a short sampling.

Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President for Technical Infrastructure at Google, knows from personal experience how data centers work, operating Google’s servers, networks, and data centers. He writes on the New York Times website:

“Because of our obsession with efficiency, we’re able to help others be more efficient as well. Small and medium data centers use two-thirds of the total energy because it’s much harder to run them efficiently, so the trend of replacing on-premise servers with efficient cloud services will reduce the amount of energy used to run the same workload.”

Similarly, Jonathan Koomey, research fellow at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University refutes Mr. Glanz:

“Modern cloud-based data centers are much more efficient and have much higher utilization levels than standard data centers, giving them substantial economic and energy-related advantages. And the shift to mobile computing promises big efficiency gains for users as well. For example, laptop computers, which typically use a third to a fifth of the power of desktops, outsold desktops for the first time in 2009 (according to IDC data). Sales of tablets, which are even more efficient, are growing much faster than those for laptops.”

Gary Cook, the senior I.T. sector analyst for Greenpeace International’s Cool IT campaign, also provides cautious optimism, writing:

Customers need companies to be more transparent about their energy choices so that they can understand the true environmental performance of their Internet and cloud use and make more informed choices. If given the information, people will choose a company that chooses clean energy. We can – and should – be able to feel good about our likes, tweets, photos and music, but it’s up to these companies to take the bold steps to make that possible.

Charles Babcock of Information Week summarizes the other side thusly:

“Everyone is doing a lot more computing, as the story notes. But as we do so, the amount of electricity consumed per unit of computing is going down, which the story somehow misses. Nowhere does the Times address this salient point. Instead, it concludes we are doing a lot more computing and, therefore, we are all guilty of driving environmental degradation. If you’re going to reform the world, you need to build a better soapbox than this.”

Tracy Carlin is a Communications and Public Policy Intern at SIIA. She is also a first year graduate student at Georgetown University’s Communication, Culture and Technology program where she focuses on intersections in education, video games and gender.

Share|

Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Policy - Cloud Computing, Public Sector Innovation Summit, Software

The European Cloud Computing Strategy: A Promising Step

September 27, 2012 By Mark MacCarthy

Today, the European Commission announced the release of its long-awaited cloud strategy in a communication entitled “Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe.” The Commission clearly recognizes cloud computing’s capacity to allow people, businesses and governments to rent services and data storage for much cheaper than buying new equipment and software. Indeed, combined with the emergence of big data analytics, cloud computing represents a sea-change in the business and technical opportunities for the information technology industry and its myriad customers, business and consumer, large and small. The Commission’s strategy report is a major step forward by policymakers in coming to grips with the policy thinking needed to foster this new development and to deal with its many challenges in Europe and around the world.

SIIA particularly welcomes the Commission’s focus on the use of cloud computing in government. The Commission’s encouragement of the use of cloud computing is the counterpart of the US government’s Cloud First approach.

Unfortunately, some parts of the Commission’s communication go in a direction SIIA warned against in its report to policy makers last year. In places, the communication treats cloud computing as a discrete entity that is potentially subject to specific government regulation. In reality, cloud computing is a variety of evolving business and technical developments that share only a rough similarity. NIST has described three different service models for cloud computing (Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Infrastructure as a Service); and four different deployment models (private, community, public and hybrid). There is also the enormous difference between consumer uses of cloud computing and its business uses, and within the latter, still further important differences between uses by large organizations and by small and medium sized businesses. Cloud computing is used in industries ranging from financial services, to energy to telecommunications.

The European Commission’s cloud strategy document recognizes this issue, noting that cloud computing has a “range of defining features (which make a general definition elusive)…” Despite this it goes on to propose a series of government regulations that can be effectively implemented only if there is a reasonably precise legal definition of cloud computing.

Privacy rules, security rules, intellectual property, and consumer protection rules apply when cloud computing is used, but there is no need for special privacy, security, intellectual property or consumer protection rules that apply just to cloud computing. Generalized rules, indeed, globally interoperable rules, are best suited to the global, borderless nature of cloud computing.

Some of the specific suggestions in the report are good in themselves. This is the case for example in the idea that security guidelines should be developed that take into account the special characteristics of cloud computing. But again there is no need for European regulations that mandate specific security requirements just for cloud computing. Security standards should be market-driven and global, not just European, in character

Another concern is the possible development of privacy rules just for the cloud. The Commission and the Parliament are working on a new data protection regulation that would apply across the board, but the cloud strategy suggests the development of alternative or competing privacy rules just for cloud computing.

The Commission also seems to be interested in mandating specific consumer protections such as data portability, interoperability and reversibility in standardized service level agreements. But it is a leap to jump from a concern for consumer protection to the conclusion that specific European consumer protection rules need to be incorporated into standardized terms of service. Industry groups, not European-wide regulators, are best situated to fill any perceived need for optional model contracts.

SIIA welcomes the Commission’s strategy and intends to engage in the process of working with the Commission to see that the benefits of cloud computing are fully realized in the European single market and throughout the world.

Share|

Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Cloud Computing: Education, Government, Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, Software Tagged With: cloud computing, EC

This Week in Public Sector Innovation

SIIA Welcomes State Department’s Interventions on Cloud Computing and Privacy

This Week in Public Sector Innovation

SIIA Urges Support for Leahy ECPA Reform to Create Level Playing Field for Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing and Its Green Lining: Responses to James Glanz and the New York Times

The European Cloud Computing Strategy: A Promising Step

SIIA Applauds House Effort to Reform IT Procurement, Submits Comments on Cloud Brokerage

About SIIA