US Government Tries Clouds for Size
Jinfo Blog

16th September 2009

By Nancy Davis Kho

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As part of President Obama's initiative (some would say imperative) to cut unnecessary costs in government spending, the U.S. government is planning to shift some of its online applications, data storage, and processing into the clouds. Unveiled on 15. September by Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra during a speech at NASA, Apps.gov (http://apps.gov), operated by the General Services Administration, is a site intended to make it easier for federal information officers to shop for approved cloud computing applications. The site is well organized and informative, if a little thin on the applications at the present time (for instance under Asset Management, only two apps were available, and Project Management only had eight offerings). Expect that to change over time as cloud computing vendors like Google and Saleforce.com push to have their applications approved for use by government agencies. You can read more about the competition heating up with major players in the cloud computing market in Tim Buckley-Owen's recent post 'Safe within the clouds (http://web.vivavip.com/forum/LiveWire/read.php?i=24000). The question of what it takes to be approved for Apps.gov is key - more so than in any other environment, questions of privacy and security are likely to hold back rapid widespread adoption of cloud computing in government settings. Press reports from Kundra's speech reveal that he stressed security as a high priority, and that the government will follow different rules based on the information being stored. Classified data will be managed through a government owned and operated platform, such as the Nebula system developed by NASA. And all data must be stored in the United States, handled by operators with high security clearance. The argument for cost savings through use of clouds is hard to dismiss for an entity with data operations the size of the U.S. government, and the dire economic situation gives incentive to agencies to get comfortable quickly with privacy and security assurances from cloud vendors. It puts pressure on the vendors to enhance their security features as well; screw up with the U.S. government contract and they're putting a whole world of revenue at risk. In the meantime, if you're considering cloud applications and haven't yet made the leap, it's worth scrolling through Apps.gov to see which vendors and products the government thinks is getting it right.

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