Feds take cloud-first approach to IT (outsourcing)

[Renew Deal]

It's a good thing not all elected officials are clueless about technology. In an effort to reduce waste and streamline IT projects, the White House has pledged to embrace flexible cloud computing in favor of traditional in-house tech deployments.

Starting in 2012, federal agencies are being told to default to cloud-based solutions "whenever a secure, reliable, cost-effective cloud option exists," according to the Washington Post.

"Government agencies too often rely on proprietary, custom IT solutions. We need to fundamentally shift this mindset from building custom systems to adopting lighter technologies and shared solutions," said Jeffery Zients, the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at a tech conference last month in McLean, Va., according to Internet.com.

"With the default policy towards cloud, what that really moves is behavior toward where agencies are going to provision IT rather than build wherever possible, especially when it comes to commodity IT," said federal CIO Vivek Kundra at the event.
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http://www.infoworld.com/t/cloud-computing/feds-take-cloud-first-approach-it-829

Cloud is a friendly word for "outsourcing." It doesn't mean offshoring, but it can.

[Taverner]

1. Wait a second...the biggest leak in Nat Security history and the govt is HOSTING????

That's what "cloud" is, a fancy name for hosting.

That means they won't have ANY control of their data. An anonymous team of ever-shifting techs will.

And yet, they whine up and down about security...

[Renew Deal]

2. And it's not just their data.

It's really our data.

[kenny blankenship]

3. Yes, but it is a golden opportunity to PRIVATIZE all public data

Not just allowing private access, but real co-ownership and control will accrue to private hands. Whose hands exactly? You don't need to know that, citizen.

[glinda]

4. Bingo

[blogslut]

10. The WH website was on an outside server, using offsite apps for the entire GWB administration

Personally, I'd rather all government IT, coding and storage be in-house but, aside from the trendy buzzword, I'm not seeing how this is any sort of new information.

[Renew Deal]

11. The GSA just outsourced their operations last week.

http://www.executivegov.com/2010/12/gsa-and-the-cloud-what-it-means-for-other-agencies-data-security

This is just heating up.

[PSPS]

5. (In heavy Indian accent) "Hello, this is tech suppoprt. My name is 'Bob'. How may I help you?"

[Kalyke]

6. I can tell you on good authority that an AMERICAN

security company has been testing this for the government over the past several months and is finding that the Cloud can be safe and secure. I can also say that the company being looked at to host is also an American company with worldwide locations.

*whistles*

[kenny blankenship]

7. What is an American company? I know what an American citizen is-

a human being who can't leave the borders of the U.S. without a passport, showing it on the way out (getting genitally groped and X-rayed in the process) and again on the way back in.

I don't know what an American company is anymore, unless you're talking about a very small, local business. Google might be called an American company because it started here, but they and others like them in the data cloud business negotiate their own treaties with foreign countries like the British East India Company of yore, and they are famous for diverting their profits for tax purposes away from America and into foreign tax havens. I don't think they are "American", like my neighbor, the retired engineer, is an American.

[Kalyke]

13. The security company doing the testing is a very small, local business, yes.

A little more than 30 employees and located withing the United States.

[kenny blankenship]

14. The security company may be

Do you intend for me to believe the hosting companies are?

[ddeclue]

8. Stupid! When the next war starts watch how quickly it gets hacked and crashed.

[kenny blankenship]

9. The Chinese pledge to borrow that data only for 18 minutes at a time.

[leveymg]

12. Nothing will be Made In the USA, anymore. Not even data.

Welcome to the start of the post-industrial, post-service economy. What does that leave us to export?

Bundles of bad Debt and a license to collect.