Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Cloudcuity™: Thought Leadership Translated to Operational Excellence

As my long time readers have certainly noticed, the frequency of my posts have lengthened over the past few months. First, I would like to offer my apologies for being remiss in that department but I have had some extenuating circumstances.

For over three years I have been closely observing and actively participating in the government's transition to cloud computing. Many of my observations, experiences and insights have been revealed through "Cloud Musings", "Cloud Musings on Forbes" and in my first book "GovCloud: Cloud Computing for the Business of Government". In parallel, I have also been designing strategies, building processes and creating transition tools all designed to reduce the risk and increase the value of cloud transformation projects. The culmination of my personal efforts and those of the entire team here at NJVC have now all been folded into our new brand for cloud computing operational excellence - Cloudcuity™




Cloudcuity™ offers a new framework that is specifically structured to help deliver measurable operational and economic benefits for cloud technology implementations. This brand fold's NJVC's rich legacy of data center consolidation, application migration and operations support into a repeatable cloud deployment model. Our team's unsurpassed insight into critical considerations for cloud computing deployments of secure applications helps mitigate risk, while ensuring optimal fit to an agency's mission. Our service offerings are laser focused on the goal of providing solutions with exceptional fit to mission and clear, measurable operational and economic benefits, as defined by the customer.
In the coming weeks, as you learn more about  Cloudcuity™  and it's capabilities, please feel free to reach out to me directly with your comments, suggestions, critiques or complaints. If you see a need with which we can possibly assist, also don't hesitate to call. 






Bookmark and Share


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



Thursday, September 13, 2012

NJVC® Unveils Cloudcuity™ Umbrella Framework for NJVC Cloud Services


Vienna, Va., Sept. 13, 2012 — NJVC®, an information technology (IT) solutions provider headquartered in Northern Virginia, introduces Cloudcuity™, a new framework for the company’s cloud service offerings to help customers transition their technology applications to a cloud environment while cutting spending, improving process and billing efficiencies and complying with a myriad of regulatory and security requirements.

The first service being introduced under the framework is the Cloudcuity Management Portal—the first commercial, multi-cloud broker service specifically designed to support federal government customers.
“Cloudcuity is not your typical cloud service,’” said Jody Tedesco, NJVC president. “This family of NJVC cloud capabilities, beginning with the Cloudcuity Management Portal, is designed for technology decision makers who must deploy IT applications to the cloud with transparency for managing risk and governance under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) and the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). NJVC is partnering with an innovative company, Gravitant, to provide federal departments and agencies with on-demand, one-stop-shopping for vendor-neutral, secure cloud solutions that enable customers to test, configure, provision and manage cloud services from start to finish using a single online interface.”

The underlying technology behind the Cloudcuity Management Portal is a unified cloud lifecycle management platform, cloudMatrix™, created and powered by Gravitant. The platform allows users to try, design and price an array of services from multiple cloud providers before placing an order or spending any money. Users can compare key differences and features among cloud service providers, such as security, service level agreements (SLAs) and cost. By testing applications for suitability in the cloud, the typical costs and inefficiencies associated with migrating untested applications to the cloud are alleviated.

“The Cloudcuity Management Portal provides a secure environment for federal agencies to try out and test cloud programs before committing to a large-scale migration,” said Dr. Ilyas Iyoob, director of advanced analytics, Gravitant. “The portal is also the perfect, risk-free strategy for any department or agency to comply with the federal cloud implementation mandate without jeopardizing its mission.”
Once a user decides on one or more cloud services, the platform automatically orders the service(s). Users then manage their cloud services with command-and-control features built into the platform. They can also quickly and easily change providers without fear of vendor lock in.
In addition, the portal:

Applies advanced monitoring and analytic tools to ensure compliance with budgets and SLAs
  • Consolidates billing and SLA governance
  • Correlates usage and cost for complete IT organizational transparency
  • Offers a choice of a software-as-a-service subscription or a self-service model
  • Meets all National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and National Security Agency (NSA) common criteria standards for the evaluation of IT products for security and trustworthiness
The cloud providers currently offering their services through the Cloudcuity Management Portal are Amazon, GoGrid, Savvis and Terremark. Amazon GovCloud is expected to be available through the portal by mid-October. NJVC and Gravitant also are evaluating a number of other cloud providers for future integration in the portal.
  
The NJVC Cloudcuity Management Portal is based on the same technology—cloudMatrix—already applied successfully by the State of Texas in its multi-year cloud computing pilot project. Through the use of a self-service, virtual private cloud portal, four Texas agencies were able to provision, manage and support every phase of their cloud services from a marketplace of providers—choosing cloud solutions, provisioning services, managing operations and capacity and decommissioning. The Texas project is the only known successfully implemented model of a cloud brokerage in a government context.
To learn more about the features and benefits of NJVC’s Cloudcuity Management Portal, visit http://www.cloudcuity.com or call 703.665.9119.
  
###
About NJVC®
With a focus on information technology automation, NJVC® specializes in supporting highly secure, complex IT enterprises in mission-critical environments, particularly for the intelligence and defense communities. We offer a wide breadth of IT and strategic solutions to our customers, ranging from strategic consulting to managed flexible services in five business areas: Cloud Services, Cyber Security, Data Center Services, IT Services and Print Solutions. Our global workforce includes dedicated and talented employees, with 94 percent holding security clearances. We partner with our customers to support their missions with security-cleared, dedicated and talented employees ready to deploy globally. To learn more, visit www.njvc.com.
  
Contact
Michelle Snyder, NJVC, 703.893.7609, michelle.snyder@njvc.com
Audra Capas, 5StarPR, 703.437.9301, audra@5starpr.com


Bookmark and Share
Cloud Musings on Forbes ( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - © Copyright Kevin L. Jackson 2012)