Government Lobbies for Cloud Clarity
I don't anyone who would argue that the U.S. government is the most efficient organization in the world. But it does have hundreds of thousands of well-educated employees with plenty of time -- at least, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (or 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., depending on their department) -- to study various issues.
Lately, government brain cells have been working on how best to move to the cloud. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is leading the charge. Two of the group's three planned volumes on the subject are now out for public comment.
Here are the key concerns. Government clouds must be secure, interoperate with other agencies as well as the outside world, and offer data and application portability. Achieving this can only be done with the proper standards and applications that have been built based on agreed-upon guidelines.
NIST is also detailing exactly how these items are actually implemented and managed -- information that can serve as the basis of yet-to-be-built government clouds.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/08/2011 at 12:47 PM