Andrea Di MaioMore client conversations on cloud computing at the Gartner Symposium in Orlando, and there seems to be an emerging chasm between those who are confident this market is picking up, and those that are still cautious and confused about the benefits and drawbacks, as well as about their and their vendors’ maturity.
Two events happened over the last few weeks show that both sides have their reasons.
- On September 29th the Department of Homeland Security awarded a 5 million $ contract to CGI and other vendors through the GSA Blanket Purchase Agreement for Infrastructure as a Service.
- On October 16th the GAO sustained the protest filed by two vendors who responded to the email in the cloud bid from GSA, on the basis of unduly restrictive requirements about the location of data centers outside the US and ambiguous technical requirements concerning the separation of network traffic. This implies that the GSA must re-issue the RFQ, delaying the availability of a BPA for email as a service, which is one of the top areas for the cloud first policy, besides web hosting
Yesterday, again many of my client meetings were about cloud, and the two main themes were (1) what is next after the cloud first policy and (2) whether internal or community cloud service providers are really up to speed with providing real cloud services.
As I said, lots of interest, but still lots of uncertainty.
1 response so far ↓
1 Todd Jackson October 19, 2011 at 12:41 pm
Discussions with peers in the public sector I continue to hear concerns regarding security and perceptions private sector cloud providers do not understand the rules, restrictions, and mandates the public sector must follow and adhere with to pass audits etc.
Following is an idea in progress to provoke additional thoughts at a local government level (presumes broadband connectivity is not an issue)…
With consideration to these concerns I believe a public private partnership model where a government entity or consortium (Council of Governments) would own the infrastructure and the management/services would be sourced or provided through the private sector could ease some of the concerns, enabling more goverrnment entities to leverage some of the benefits (i.e. consilidation and cost savings) associated with using the cloud.
Using a hybrid cloud model, community and private (scalable and elastic), the environment could be designed and a cost structure established which would allow for incremental (pay for use) growth as each entity’s confort level and need grows (at their own pace). The public entities manage their own application and processes as well as create and maintain data relevant to their enterprise. This is where the value or greater value of IT can be realized throughout the organization. Each public entity would then pay for the hardware resources, storage, functionality and services as they need it. the services would be contracted for directly from the privae sector managment company or companies.
Managing and maintaining hardware (commodity service) does not require intimate organizational knowledge therefore let someone else perform those tasks (private sector); however organizational staff should be involved from an enterprise architecture standpoint. Budgets are too tight and continue to shrink so why are we compelled to replicate the fundational infrastructure used to support our similar enterprises?
Like the construction of roads in a given region, engineers use the same cross section detail which reveals or calls for the same base material and surface material. This concept can be applied to server and storage infrastruture (commoditee). However, unique to the construction of the road in any given situation includes soil type, grade (slope) and other site specific criteria which influence the thickness of the base material, the method used to compact the base material, the thickness of the surfacing material, etc. These influencing factors relate to the culture, applications, data, and retention policies specific to our organization so we can allocate server and storage resources necessary to support each locals unique needs (pay as you go).
Engineers in each local do not redesign standard construction details instead they focus their time on solving the problems unique to their construction project, we need to apply this thought process to supporting the IT infrastructure for or organizations. This will enable your organization’s staff to focus their efforts in a manner that supports organizational goals which presumably are based on the needs of the constituency which requires intimate knowledge of the organization (culture, processes, values). Using the community/private hybrid cloud model supported by a public private partnership, I believe, will enable public organizations to focus their time and effort on projects their organization and customers value most.
The perception and comfort level with Cloud will evolve over time and therefore our view and strategy must also be scalable and elastic to enable our organizaions to levergage this technology as it matures and transitions to the next “tranformational” technology.