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This week in the Federal Cloud: April 30-May 4

May 4, 2012 By

There were a couple of expected but relatively big announcements around cloud in the federal government this week. First and foremost was the issuance of the Federal IT Shared Services Strategy on May 2nd by Federal CIO, Steve VanRoekel. The Shared Services Strategy, like the Shared-First Initiative before it, seeks to reduce the overall cost of government by eliminating duplicative IT and streamlining operations, while moving agencies to shared platforms for commodity IT (like email and storage), support IT (HR and financial management) and eventually mission IT (performance management). Under the plan, agencies have until August 31 to create their shared services roadmaps.

Also this week, we heard the first definitive date for the launching of the FedRAMP Initial Operational Capabilities (IOC), as it was publically announced that June 6th would be the date. This means, according to the FedRAMP timeline that we will see an operational program, with limited scope. We should also expect to see progress toward the official authorization/certification of CSPs, an updated Concept of Operations, and updated continuous monitoring guidance. It also means we will have to have approved third party assessors (3PAOs) in the very near term as they play an integral part in certifying CSPs. It was originally expected that we would have approved 3PAOs in April, but that date was later pushed to early May.

In other cloud news:

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, Government, Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, PSIG, Software Tagged With: ,

This Week in the Federal Cloud: April 9-13

April 13, 2012 By

The run up to FedRAMP continued this week, with an announcement on Friday morning by Dave McClure, GSA Associate Administrator for the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technology, that the first FedRAMP 3PAOs would be announced in May.  This represents a slight delay from what we had been hearing over the past few months, namely that the initial accredited 3PAOs would be ready to go by mid-April.  As anyone who has been following the FedRAMP process knows, without the first set of accredited 3PAOs it’s difficult to get the process of provisional authorization for CSPs under FedRAMP going.

Also this week, SIIA member McAfee hosted an exciting and insightful Public Sector Summit this week at the Ritz Carlton in Pentagon City.  The event attended by more than 300 government and industry participates had a heavy focus on cybersecurity, cloud and mobility and featured keynotes from Howard Schmidt, the White House Cybersecurity Advisory and General Steven Smith, Director of the Army Cyberspace Task Force.

In other cloud news:

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group at SIIA.

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

This Week in the Federal Cloud: April 2-6

April 6, 2012 By

As it does every spring, Federal IT took center stage in Washington, DC this week, as the Washington Convention Center hosted the annual FOSE Conference and Trade Show.  This year featured tracks on mobility, cybersecurity and cloud & virtualization, as well as keynotes from Federal CIO Steven Van Roekel and former U.S. Senator George Mitchell.  A lot of buzz in the halls on innovation, the future of federal IT, security in the cloud and the upcoming FedRAMP certification process.

This week in Federal Cloud also saw contract awards for the Army Private Cloud (APC2) and more talk about the need for acquisition to evolve to support cloud deployment.

  • FOSE Conference brings together hundreds of government IT leaders from around the country
    (Federal Times, April 3)
    (Washington Technology, April 4)
    (Federal Computer Week, April 3)
  • US Army awards $250 million private cloud contract to HP (ITProPortal, April 4)
  • McClure says acquisition officers must retool for cloud (Fierce Government IT, April 4)
  • Australia:  Federal government opens up to smaller cloud deals.  Aim is to make sure technology can be acquired as it becomes available (IT News Australia, April 3)

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Government, Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, PSIG, Public Sector Innovation Summit, Software Tagged With: ,

This Week in the Federal Cloud: March 26-30

March 30, 2012 By

A lot happened this week around the federal government’s move to cloud computing and related technologies – everything from GSA’s Dave McClure announcing that current IaaS BPA holders will be the first to go through the FedRAMP certification process, to the federal government announcing a $200m “big data” investment to GSA Chief Martha Johnson pushing shared services and Amazon and NIH announcing plans to put human genome project data in the cloud. The links below give you more information.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Government, Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, PSIG, Public Sector Innovation Summit, Software Tagged With: ,

What is Next for US Federal Cloud Implementation?

February 15, 2012 By

By Andras Szakal, vice president and chief technology officer for IBM U.S. Federal

The government is making steady progress in executing the reforms outlined in its 25-Point Plan, delivering many ahead of schedule. At the core of this is the shift to cloud-oriented shared services, which hold great promise for government. Avoiding the redundancy of having each department’s IT shop develop its own software for managing personnel or dealing with public-information requests accounts for nearly half the $932 million in IT savings it has identified through its TechStat program for reviewing IT.

New Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) security standards are an important step to make it easy for agencies to purchase cloud and other services from approved vendors. They outline ways to standardize security requirements and contract language for implementing cloud-based IT applications. But they are just that — an outline — rather than a detailed roadmap to cloud implementation.

To be sure, cloud won’t be a one size fits all approach when it comes to government implementation. In most cases, a combination of different approaches — private clouds, hybrid clouds and public clouds — should all be examined to determine which approach makes the most sense for the specific need that is being met.

Applications like e-mail, content management, and back-up have been relatively easy to move to the cloud. But using cloud architectures to improve core functions and make development of processes quicker, while reducing duplication of effort will require careful analysis of each application to determine the best migration path.

Functions that are common to many agencies are natural fits for a traditional cloud model, while unique, dedicated functions are often better managed in dedicated systems that allow the flexibility to adapt to underlying business flows. Law enforcement case management and intelligence analysis systems, for example, require unique capabilities and security needs, which require greater agency control and dedicated systems support.

In cases like these, it often makes sense to use virtualization technologies inside government data centers. Many government programs have security needs that are easier to secure internally. Agencies can achieve some of the cost-cutting benefits of cloud technology by adopting “private clouds,” which are easier to secure because information never moves outside of a dedicated data center.

The coming year is an exciting time for Federal IT, as FedRAMP and the move to shared services — whether in the form of public or private clouds — provide the structure that will help new projects for cost cutting take root, ultimately saving taxpayers money by helping government become more efficient.

Andras Szakal is participating in a panel on the U.S. Government’s efforts to reform and improve the operational efficiency of its massive IT infrastructure tomorrow at CloudGov.

Andras Szakal is responsible for IBM’s industry solution technology strategy in support of the U.S. Federal customer.

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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, Cloud Computing, Government, Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, PSIG, Public Sector Innovation Summit, Software Tagged With: ,

Pending Federal Budget Cuts Would Stall Technology-Based Education Innovation

March 18, 2011 By

The use of technology and digital learning in education has reached a tipping point — the conversation has shifted from “if” to “how,” and education leaders are touting digital learning’s power to improve productivity, personalize learning, and expand learning opportunities. Yet, just as the nation’s education system is poised to accelerate technology-based innovation and improvement, a critical U.S. Department of Education program is on the chopping block. House-passed and Senate-proposed bills would zero out funding for the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT; NCLB II-D) program for Fiscal Year 2011 (i.e., 2011-2012 school year).

Advocates are mobilizing to respond, contacting their Members of Congress by e-mail and phone and advocating in-person April 13 (at SIIA’s Ed Tech Government Forum, which will also include speakers on government programs and policies of interest to digital learning providers).

SIIA and several education groups (ISTE, CoSN and SETDA) expressed strong concern in a recent statement: “We are deeply disappointed that despite many Members’ understanding of the vital role technology plays in K-12 education in their states and districts, Congress is on the verge of eliminating funding for this critical program. Elimination of the program also is the surest way to devalue the billions of dollars invested over the last two years on improving broadband access to K‐12 schools and directly undercuts ongoing state and federal efforts to deploy education data systems, implement new college and areer‐ready standards and assessments, and address the well-documented STEM crisis. Our educators and students deserve better, and we urge Congress to reverse course and fully fund the EETT program.”

[3/22/11 Update: 14 U.S. Senators called on the Appropriations Committee to restore funding for the EETT program to the FY10 $100 million level. See their letter, along with a supporting statement from education groups including NEA and NSBA.]

EETT is the only federal education program designed to leverage innovation and technology to adequately prepare all of the nation’s children for the competitive 21st century global economy. Integrating technology among all programs is necessary, but not sufficient, while public R&D supoort is needed but not an alternative for directly supporting schools. This targeted investment is needed to provide leadership and professional development, and to increase the capacity of educators to redesign education to further personalize learning and engage students.

Spread the word to educators and colleagues! Contact your Member of Congress now!

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Government Forum, Education Policies, Education Policy, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Balancing Technology Standardization and Innovation in Race to the Top Assessments

January 31, 2011 By

The U.S. K-12 public education system continues to lag in both adoption of technology and related innovation as well as in leveraging technology and digital resources through interoperability standards. The two are closely connected: technology standards provide a base for cost-effective, value-added innovation; but if carried too far or adopted too early, such technical standardization can also inhibit desired innovation and competition. 

Their appropriate balance is therefore critical to advancing both important goals. The challenges in finding this delicate equilibrium point are being tested (pun intended) now as the U.S. Department of Education and its two Race to the Top Assessment (RTTA) grantee consortia — SBAC and PARCC – consider the scope and form of their deliverables and technology (interoperability) standards.

The $350 million RTTA initiative promises to bring important technology-enabled innovation to assessment — including many long available but not often implemented by states — through the online delivery of more robust (i.e., comprehensive, authentic, timely and adaptive) measurement of student knowledge and skills to inform teaching, learning and accountability. Leveraging this innovation will require changes to teaching and learning, technology investment, interoperability development and adoption, and limits on the scope of RTTA development.

In response to an important RFI by the Department regarding the technology standards to be employed by the RTTA consortia, SIIA supported the requirement that RTTA grantees “maximize the interoperability of assessments across technology platforms and the ability for States to switch their assessments from one technology platform to another.” RTTA could provide the tipping point to K-12 education’s adoption of data and content interoperability standards (see SIIA Primer) that would, for example, enable and maximize our ability to personalize learning.

But these benefits will only be realized if interoperability is properly implemented, and if standardization is balanced with innovation. SIIA’s recommendations to USED (and the RTTA consortia) elaborated on both points. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Government Forum, Education, Education Policies, Education Policy, Policy Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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