Digital Discourse / Software Events / Cloud/Gov

This Week in Public Sector Innovation

October 18, 2012 By

Federal News Radio CIO Survey: In August Federal News Radio survey 130 federal CIO personnel on key issues affecting government IT today. Among the key findings: budget issues are driving CIO priorities, DOD views cloud differently than do civilian agencies (they see more savings), and many CIOs are concerned about the impact of sequestration on IT spending. See the full summary from FedNewsRadio.com here.

George Washington University hosts discussion on Rep. Issa’s IT reform proposal: On Thursday, GWU’s Law School hosted an open discussion on House Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) Chairman Darrell Issa’s proposed reform of the 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act, which governs federal IT acquisition. The proposal, which is not expected to be introduced until early next year, would empower federal CIOs by giving them budget authority, as well as codifying a number of the Obama Administrations proposals from the 25 Point Plan to Reform Federal IT Management such as data center consolidation and FedRAMP. Ecommerce Times has a story. See the draft bill on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee site.

FedRAMP continues to make progress, news: FCW / 1105 Media released a report this week on the challenges of implementing the FedRAMP program. FedRAMP, which reached its initial operating capabilities in June has not yet approved a single Cloud Service Provider under the program. FedRAMP has approved 15 third party assessment organizations (3PAOS) to work with CSPs to meet the baseline control requirements and expects to grant provisional authorization to 3 CSPs by the end of this year. Read more with a link to the survey here.

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

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Filed Under: Cloud/Gov, Government, PSIG, Software

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

October 17, 2012 By

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:

  1. 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.
  2. Devices themselves are using less energy especially as  desk tops and laptops give way to tablets and smartphones,
  3. 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.

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Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Cloud/Gov, Policy - Cloud Computing, Software

FTC Announces Online Privacy Workshop on Consumer Data, U.S. Internet Governance Delegation Formed, Update on Proposed Net Traffic Proposal, and more

October 16, 2012 By

FTC Announces Online Privacy Workshop on Consumer Data

The Federal Trade Commission announced on Monday that it will host a workshop in December to explore the practices and privacy implications of comprehensive collection of data about consumers’ online activities. The Workshop follows up on the FTC’s March 2012 report, Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change, which called on companies handling consumer data to implement recommendations for protecting consumers’ privacy, including privacy by design, providing simplified privacy choices to consumers, and greater transparency to consumers about data collection and use. The FTC is encouraging consumer protection organizations, academics, business and industry representatives, privacy professionals, and other interested parties to attend, and has solicited input for specific topics and requests to participate in panels. SIIA will submit a request to participate in this workshop.

U.S. Internet Governance Delegation Formed, Update on Proposed Net Traffic Proposal

The U.S. has fully formed its delegation to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), consisting of 100 members from government, industry and civilians, with representatives from the Defense and Commerce departments, the FCC, FTC and NTIA, he said. Industry representatives come from both the telecom and Internet industries. Mark MacCarthy, Vice President of Public Policy at SIIA and adjunct professor in Georgetown University’s Communication, Culture and Technology Program, has been named to serve as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the WCIT.

Other recent announcements from WCIT Ambassador Kramer include an update that the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO) is likely to withdraw its controversial Internet traffic compensation proposal, but is now considering another proposed revision to the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) that would, among other things, establish a “sender-party-pays” model for Internet traffic compensation that could require the sender of any Internet content to pay for its transmission.

Publishers, Google Settle Book Dispute

On October 4th, several book publishers (McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin Group, John Wiley & Sons, and Simon & Schuster) and Google announced that they had settled their seven-year dispute over copyright infringement issues relating to Google’s book search program. While the announcement says that Google “acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright-holders,” it is silent as to the terms of the settlement, and more specifically Google’s views on whether unauthorized scanning and indexing of works constitutes fair use. The announcement did state that, under the settlement, a publisher may opt to have Google remove its works from the Google Book Search database and those publishers that choose to keep their works in the database may request copies of electronic versions of their works from Google. It is unclear if there was any payment made by either party as the terms of the agreement are confidential, and because the deal is a private settlement, there will be no public settlement document. The announcement also said that the settlement need not be approved by the court. Although the publishers have now settled, the Authors Guild has continued their suit against Google as a class action suit.

Senate Leader Confirms Cyber Will Again Come up in Nov.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) confirmed over the weekend [ http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/261891-reid-vows-fresh-bid-to-pass-stalled-cybersecurity-bill ] that the Senate will again consider cybersecurity legislation (The Cybersecurity Act, S. 3414) when it returns for its “lame duck” session in November. The legislation failed to garner the necessary 60 votes to advance in August, but supporters appear optimistic that the less politicized environment and looming threat of the Administration’s executive order on cybersecurity will help garner additional support from Republicans. Of course, any speculations about the outcome of that process should be held until after the elections, as changes in administration or congressional leadership in either body could have a significant effect on the lame duck strategy.

SIIA Federal Cloud Survey Goes Live

Last week SIIA’s Public Sector Innovation Group launched its inaugural Federal Cloud Survey, seeking to aggregate data on the federal government’s progress in adopting cloud computing, mobile technologies, and data center consolidation. Federal government IT professionals are encouraged to have their voice heard by responding to the survey, which can be found here. The findings of the survey will be published as part of SIIA’s Cloud/Gov Conference in Washington, DC on February 12, 2013. Learn more about Cloud/Gov here.

For SIIA policy updates including upcoming events, news and analysis, subscribe to SIIA’s weekly policy email newsletter, Digital Policy Roundup.

David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy.

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Filed Under: Cloud/Gov, Digital Policy Roundup, Government, Policy, Software, Software Events

This Week in Public Sector Innovation

October 12, 2012 By

New GovWin Consulting report shows growth of electronic storage: A new report from Deltek GovWin shows a continuing increase in spending on electronic data storage. GovWin targets the current size of the market at just over $1 billion, representing an increase of 22% over the last three years. The market is being driven by an explosion in the amount of electronic data federal agencies collect and store, with the Defense Department leading the way. Read GovWin’s blog post describing their findings and methodology here.

Intelligence Community Accelerating Move to Cloud: Earlier this week, Director of National Intelligence, General James Clapper updated plans for the IC’s move to cloud computing, stating at the GEOINT Symposium that the IC would reach initial operating capability on shared IT infrastructure by March 2013 and moving the entire IC infrastructure to the shared platform by 2018. The move to shared IT services will include a IC-wide common desktop being developed by DIA and NGA. Among the outstanding questions impacting the move is how to handle software licensing and it appears the Intelligence Community will work together to develop a new licensing model that will take into account a more services-oriented technology environment. Federal News Radio has a full story.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Hosts Public Sector Summit: On Wednesday, AWS held its 3rd Annual Public Sector Summit and announced continued growth in the public sector, with some 300 government agencies (federal and SLG) and 1500 educational institutions now using the AWS Cloud. They also announced increased capabilities for the AWS GovCloud, a dedicated community cloud for federal customers. Chief among those features is high-performance supercomputing capability made available through Amazon’s Compute Cluster Instances. Information Week has a good wrap up.

SIIA Federal Cloud Survey Goes Live: Last week SIIA’s Public Sector Innovation Group launched its inaugural Federal Cloud Survey, seeking to aggregate data on the federal government’s progress in adopting cloud computing, mobile technologies, and data center consolidation. Federal government IT professionals are encouraged to have their voice heard by responding to the survey, which can be found here. The findings of the survey will be published as part of SIIA’s Cloud/Gov Conference in Washington, DC on February 12, 2013. Learn more about Cloud/Gov here.

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

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Filed Under: Cloud/Gov, PSIG, Software Events

This Week in Public Sector Innovation

September 28, 2012 By

GAO Report highlights need to Leverage EA for cost savings: Earlier this week GAO issued a report highlighting the need for government agencies to better utilize enterprise architecture. GAO points out that “effective use of enterprise architecture is a hallmark of successful organizations and can be important to achieving operations and technology environments that maximize institutional mission performance and outcomes. Among other things, this includes realizing cost savings through consolidation and reuse of shared services and elimination of antiquated and redundant mission operations, enhancing information sharing through data standardization and system integration, and optimizing service delivery through streamlining and normalization of business processes and mission operations. Moreover, the use of architectures is required by the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 and by OMB.” See the full GAO report here.

DOT to take mission critical apps to the cloud: This week DOT announced that it is migrating mission-critical applications connected with the agency’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to the cloud. Apps to be moved to a cloud-based environment include FMCSA’s driving record database and related systems. These will be migrated to a FISMA-certified cloud data center run by Virtustream, which has partnered with OBXtek and MicroTech on the effort known as the Gateway Augmentation Project. Read more from GCN.

New report says $4.8 billion will be spent on cloud and related IT in next five years: A new report from Pike Research says spending by city governments who are under increasing pressure to do more with less, will cumulatively add up to nearly 5 billion between now and 2017. The majority of this is aimed at what the report terms smart technology, including cloud, data analytics, application development and related. See the full report here.

Cloud broker issue continues be debated: This week, Mike Hettinger, Director of the SIIA Public Sector Division was featured on In Depth with Francis Rose on Federal News Radio. The topic, what are cloud brokers and how would the concept work for the federal government? Here the interview here.

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

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Filed Under: Cloud/Gov, PSIG, Software Events

This Week in Public Sector Innovation

September 20, 2012 By

Issa Posts Discussion Draft of IT Procurement Reform Bill: On Thursday, Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee posted a discussion draft of legislation aimed at improving IT acquisition practices. View the draft here. In response, SIIA issued a statement applauding Chairman Issa for his effort and acknowledging that we look forward to working with the Committee to craft a final bill that will improve IT acquisition for the benefit of vendors and the federal government. View the blog post here.

Cloud Brokerage RFI: This week SIIA’s Public Sector Innovation Group submitted formal comments in response to GSA’s Cloud Brokerage RFI. The comments highlight the need for GSA to work with industry to better define the cloud broker concept, ensure competition in the federal procurement process, optimize the value of software licensing and avoid potential conflicts of interest. The full comments can be viewed here.

NJVC Opens Cloud Brokerage for Federal Government: In related cloud broker news, NJVC, an IT consulting and managed services firm operating in the defense and intelligence arena, launched a multi- cloud broker service for the federal government that will let agencies try, design and price an array of services from cloud providers before spending money and committing to large-scale migration. See GCN’s coverage of it here.

FedRAMP Update: Since the announcement of the first 10 accredited third-party assessment organizations (3PAOs) in June, GSA has added 6 more to the approved list, the latest being Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, which was announced this week. To date no company has received its provisional authorization under the FedRAMP program although GSA expects to have 3 companies approved under the program by the end of the calendar year. See more on FedRAMP here.

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

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Filed Under: Cloud/Gov, PSIG, Software Events Tagged With:

This Week in the Federal Cloud: April 16-20

April 20, 2012 By

This week, DOD and Intelligence officials speaking at the AFCEA conference highlighted the need to match acquisition policy with the speed of technology. As we have seen over many years, governments consistently struggle to change their culture and mindset, as well as the underlying acquisition policy, to keep pace with changing technology. As governments plan for and begin to move to cloud computing, this issue will continue to be a point of debate.

This week we also saw the release of an insightful survey by Serena Software, highlighting the views of federal IT officials on a number of key topics. Agile development – a software development process focused on delivering results quickly in small increments – was a priority for only 22 percent of the 225 federal IT professionals surveyed. The same study also reported that only 19 percent of those surveyed listed cloud computing as a priority despite the push by the Administration for “Cloud First.”

The drumbeat around continuous monitoring also continued this week, as lawmakers began debate on Rep. Issa’s FISMA 2.0 legislation. The bill, H.R. 4257, known officially as the Federal Information Security Amendments Act of 2012 passed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee earlier this week by voice vote and is expected to be considered on the House Floor next week. The key to continuous monitoring, which is seen by many as an alternative to compliance audits, is making sure the underlying control environment you are monitoring is secure. Simply monitoring a weak system won’t achieve the desired results.

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

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Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Cloud/Gov, Government, Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, PSIG, Software Tagged With: ,
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