Saturday, July 28, 2012

BISNOW Data Center Event Highlight's Cloud

A big thank you to BISNOW and my fellow panel members for an outstanding discussion and very informative event, last week's Data Center Investment Conference and Expo. The federal marketplace is certainly being changed by cloud and the data center industry is certainly willing and able to support this important transition.

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(Reposted from "Habitat for Data-manity

  JC Boggs and Steve Cooper

Our federal roundtable, moderated by purple tie-wearing King & Spalding partner JC Boggs, explained that agencies are all moving at different speeds to the cloud. The most mission critical programs are moving the slowest. FAA CIO Steve Cooper says his agency is starting to stand up federal private clouds. And there are plans to share that environment with other government agencies, as well as offer them cloud-based services. But Steve says he won’t be the first CIO to go into a public cloud and risk the public embarrassment of a security breach.

NJVC GM Kevin Jackson

NJVC GM Kevin Jackson says cloud is one of those words that’s easily misunderstood. It's not about IT but an economic and business model, he explains. Agencies that solely rely on their IT staff to make decisions about cloud are making a mistake. He also urged data center providers to pay close attention to FedRamp requirements and make sure any new data center projects include those. Otherwise they’ll be back-fitting.

Tucker Carlson

Wanna know who'll be the next president? Tucker Carlson isn't into predictions, but he did tell our audience how to figure it out for themselves. (We always say: Give a man a prognostication, and he'll comment online for a day. Teach a man to prognasticate, and he'll go on CNN for life...)

Equinix federal marketing manager Lee Tamassia

When federal agencies were first mandated to close a huge number of data centers, the size requirements were a bit different. The square footage requirement has gone away, but that doesn’t mean complications have as well, says Equinix federal marketing manager Lee Tamassia. The amount of front-end work associated with inventory and hardware, and what applications are running , and which platforms are talking to other platforms are big factors. Consolidation will happen, but it’s a colossal task.

Carousel Industries systems engineer Brian Fedak

One concern for Carousel Industries' Brian Fedak, who designs data centers, is the lack of attention to security. He sees security being cut from shared cloud environment blueprints. Kevin argues that security has always been a concern but a little bit of a red herring. Security in the cloud isn’t different than security in IT, Kevin says. It’s just automated in the cloud. Brian also says that there’s not much difference between the federal and commercial markets for cloud. Both have concerns about data networking design and having visibility into the usage of that data. Check out DC Real Estate pub for even more coverage.

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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

GSA Seeks Cloud Brokerage Information

GSA is using the RFI process to collect information about alternative models and/or solutions for future cloud acquisition vehicles and processes that further these goals. One emerging concept in cloud computing is that of a 'cloud broker', an entity that manages the use, performance and delivery of cloud services, and negotiates relationships between Cloud Providers and Cloud Consumers.

The objective of this RFI is to learn more about how government can further leverage the key characteristics and advantages of cloud computing to save money and increase IT efficiencies.  Cloud brokerage is one concept that GSA is exploring and this RFI contains questions specific to cloud brokerage.

According to Gartner, A cloud services brokerage (CSB) plays an intermediary role in cloud computing. CSBs make it easier for organizations to consume and maintain cloud services, particularly when they span multiple providers. Gartner Research VP Benoit Lheureux explains what a Cloud Services Brokerage is, what it does, and why you would consider one as part of a cloud computing strategy via an online podcast.

In an online working document, NIST has also demonstrated an interest in this role by providing their views on multiple cloud service management scenarios. In another recent development, the Department of Defense named the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) as the department's cloud services broker.

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Sunday, July 15, 2012

DoD Cloud Computing Strategy

The DoD recently released the department's formal cloud computing strategy.

DoD Cloud Computing Strategy
View more documents from Kevin Jackson.

In the forward, DoD CIO Teresa Takai said that:

"The DoD Cloud Computing Strategy has been expanded to address use of commercial cloud services in the Department's multi-provider enterprise cloud environment. Adoption and implementation of commercially provided cloud services are being rapidly accelerated with the maturing of the Federal Cloud Computing initiative, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), and release of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act."

Specific cloud computing transition steps include:
  • Foster adoption of Cloud Computing
  • Optimize Data Center Consolidation
  • Establish the DoD Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure; and
  • Deliver Cloud Services
A subsequent memo identified the Defense Information Systems Agency as the department cloud services broker.

DISA Broker Designation
View more documents from Kevin Jackson

A copy of the strategy is available for download at http://www.slideshare.net/kvjacksn/findod-cloud-computing-strategy


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( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - © Copyright Kevin L. Jackson 2012)