Beginning with remarks from Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, there was much emphasis on the progress and opportunities of Federal Government use of cloud computing at the third National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cloud Computing Workshop on April 7-8 in Washington, DC. Kundra highlighted that there is no longer a question of “if” the U.S. Government will adopt the cloud, but “when,” suggesting that any critics of the cloud-first initiative begin to embrace this and help work to address the challenges.

NIST Director Dr. Pat Gallagher echoed this sentiment, highlighting that “the promise is real, excitement by agencies is high.” However, they are struggling with how to do it under other requirements they have. Dr. Gallagher articulated that NIST, as coordinator of Federal Government use of technology and standards, is at the center of helping the Government identify the barriers and also the key standards and enablers to overcome these challenges, and to realize the tremendous opportunities of cloud computing.

He noted that the cloud is indeed disruptive, breaking traditional models (at times both IT practice and policy). Therefore there is a critical role for NIST, as a choreographer, to lead this discussion between cloud users (particularly the USG) and the cloud industry-there is not an automatic communication because the “cloud” is such a broad set of architectures and possibilities.

Long term, Gallagher noted, we need to redefine the approach, admitting that this will take a considerable redesign from a policy and performance perspective–but that these ongoing discussions about reference architecture and standards are critical to ensuring that we don’t get left with a short term approach in the long term. Perhaps the term that best described the process was the concept offered by Dr. Gallagher that “we’re building the plane while we’re flying it, dealing with solutions on multiple time scales and stretching existing policy approaches into new areas.” Of course, he also went on to emphatically state that it’s worth the effort!

And he’s right. The Obama Administration and NIST have correctly identified that standards that support interoperability, portability, and security-developed with input from stakeholders, and in an open and transparent process–can help movement to the cloud. And they’re making solid progress down this road through their ongoing efforts leading up to this workshop. [Read more...]