Earlier this week I had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to have a private meeting with Mr. Vivek Kundra. Although my time with him and Mr. Gary Washington (OMB/Egov &IT Internal Efficiency and Effectiveness Portfolio Manager) was short, their focus and mission were perfectly clear.
Dominating Mr. Kundra's wall is a graphic showing the Federal IT spend for each agency. From my point of view, this was a statement that highlighted the Federal CIO's #1 goal - stop the practice of building silo’ed IT infrastructures in order to save money in the 2010 budget.
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After first peppering me with questions about my background and federal experience, Mr. Kundra asked me for recommendations on improving Federal IT procurement. My answers included the need to provide rewards for enhanced IT efficiency, agency incentives to reduce spending and of course, increased use of cloud computing. On that point, I stressed the need for interoperability, portability and standards. We also discussed my recommendation for a “Government PaaS”. Such a platform would be owned by the government and used by all agencies on the coming GovCloud. We also briefly discuss the need for strategic coordination between DoD and civilian agencies on a common cloud platform. Mr. Kundra and Mr. Washington thanked me for my input and suggested some further dialog with other government officials.
As if I needed the prodding, this short experience reinforces my personal views on the critical need for rapid adoption of cloud computing technologies and techniques by the federal establishment. In a few short week, the new administration has demonstrated its willingness to lead this important transition and I look forward to supporting their efforts in any way possible.
Kevin Jackson is currently an Engineering Fellow with NJVC, one of the largest information technology solutions providers supporting the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Prior to this position, he served in various senior management positions including VP, Dataline LLC, Director Federal for Sirius Computer Solutions and Worldwide Sales Executive for IBM. His formal education includes MSEE (Computer Engineering), MA National Security & Strategic Studies and a BS Aerospace Engineering. Jackson graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1979 and retired from the US Navy earning specialties in Space Systems Engineering, Airborne Logistics and Airborne Command and Control. He also served with the National Reconnaissance Office, Operational Support Office, providing tactical support to Navy and Marine Corps forces worldwide. Kevin is the founder and author of “Cloud Musings”, a widely followed blog that focuses on the use of cloud computing by the Federal government. He is also the editor and founder of “Government Cloud Computing” electronic magazine, published at Ulitzer.com.
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Richard Davies wrote: The UK has a good crop of technology pioneers in cloud computing - for example ElasticHosts, FlexiScale, Flexiant, OnApp - and also some strong government initiatives such as G-Cloud.
We will have to see whether this kind of technical leadership converts into swift mass-market adoption or not.
Earlier this week I had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to have a private meeting with Mr. Vivek Kundra. Although my time with him and Mr. Gary Washington (OMB/Egov &IT Internal Efficiency and Effectiveness Portfolio Manager) was short, their focus and mission were perfectly clear.
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