By Daniel Gouré
The U.S.A. of America Government’s movement to the cloud is absolutely necessary. But it volition endure a decidedly complex undertaking. These are the principal conclusions I drew from a conference on the development of federal information technology held past times the Lexington Institute on Capitol Hill on Nov 3. Speaking at this lawsuit was a stellar array of individuals from leading private sector firms such every bit Amazon Web Services, SAP, The Carlyle Group, CSRA (now General Dynamics Information Technology), Perspecta, CrowdStrike together with NetApp. Also providing comments were representatives from the federal authorities with vast sense inwards IT, cloud implementation together with cybersecurity.
The speakers were of i hear when it came to cloud computing. While non a panacea, moving authorities information technology activities to the cloud is imperative. Operating inwards the cloud holds out the hope of improved cybersecurity, amend information administration together with information sharing, faster access to cutting-edge technologies together with reduced costs. Advances inwards IT, including the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial tidings (AI), augmented reality, blockchain together with autonomy volition endure made substantially to a greater extent than effective when nesting inside an architecture that centers on cloud computing.
It is of import to signal out that every bit far dorsum every bit 2009, the Obama Administration made migration to the cloud a priority for federal departments together with agencies. The Obama White House released its Cloud Computing Initiative which asserted that moving to the cloud would improve the footstep past times which authorities could access leading-edge information technology capabilities acre simultaneously reducing costs. At the same time, advocates for this major shift inwards federal information technology procurement policy recognized that the modify would get got fourth dimension together with demand addressing issues such every bit security, privacy, standards, information management, together with procurement policies.
The movement to the cloud is a two-way phenomenon. By this I hateful it is non precisely a thing of changing the way authorities departments together with agencies operate their networks, theatre their information or procure information technology services. Moving to the cloud volition inevitably promote changes inwards the way these same authorities organizations are structured together with operate. For example, the value of aligning with the cloud architecture regarding faster response, the availability of applications together with lower costs should set an destination to the vogue of authorities customers to demand customization of software systems together with applications.
Operating inwards the cloud volition practise to a greater extent than to intermission downward information stovepipes than all the directives signed out past times senior authorities officials. The operating model inwards a cloud surround is essentially i of sharing. This is inherent inwards the diverse cloud service models such every bit Platform-as-a-Service, Software-as-a-Service, together with Infrastructure-as-a-Service. Additionally, the availability of information inwards the cloud is an incentive for sharing. Entirely novel delineate of piece of employment concern models based on information sharing, such every bit those employed past times Airbnb together with Uber, get got been created.
The federal government, including the Department of Defense (DoD), has made progress inwards moving to the cloud. Today at that spot are hundreds of active federal cloud contracts. They tend to vary widely regarding scope, scale, duration, together with capacity to access advanced technology. Many simply involve the transfer of infrastructure from government-owned together with operated information centers to those provided past times the private sector. Some are private clouds operated past times commercial companies, pregnant that they are segregated from other cloud operations together with controlled past times the contracting subdivision or agency. Others are fully populace where authorities information together with applications cohabitate inwards the same surround every bit other users.
DoD together with the Intelligence Community back upward precisely about of the largest authorities clouds. Two examples are milCloud, operated past times the Defense Information Security Agency (DISA), together with the Commercial Cloud Services contract which is available to all 17 tidings agencies. DISA has released a asking for proposals for the Defense Enterprise Office Solution contract, which volition endure a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar, unmarried root award.
Yet, despite the top-down pressure level to movement aggressively towards the cloud, progress past times authorities departments together with agencies has been relatively slow. Until recently, no business office of the federal authorities had met the Office of Management together with Budget’s target for spending xv per centum of its information technology resources on cloud service. Moreover, according to a study past times Gartner, less than five per centum of authorities private cloud environments get got the total characteristics of the cloud.
The reasons for the relatively dull footstep of cloud adoption were discussed at length past times the participants at the Lexington information technology conference. They attain from reluctance to adopt novel technologies together with a novel operating/contracting model, to safety concerns, the importance of information sovereignty, the difficulties of migrating information together with applications, lack of resources together with sheer bureaucratic resistance. Most information that could endure migrated to a cloud has compliance together with regulatory requirements that must endure addressed. When tidings information is involved, at that spot are additional restrictions together with controls, precisely about of which are the purview of the generating means together with non the user. As i speaker observed, acre the goal is migration to the cloud, authorities agencies, together with their private-sector contractors volition get got to operate for years inwards a hybrid surround characterized past times a mix of legacy systems working amongst advanced applications housed inwards the cloud, together with information together with apps housed inwards both private together with populace clouds.
The Trump Administration has recognized many of these issues inwards its draft Cloud Smart Strategy. For example, the strategy points out that “moving an application from a traditional information oculus to a virtualized infrastructure vendor to a greater extent than frequently than non does non enable automatic application scalability with increased user demand.”
It is the complexity of migrating critical authorities information together with activities to the cloud that was at the gist of DoD’s conclusion to construction its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) every bit a unmarried laurels together with to ensure the might of the winner to brand the safety of information migrated to the novel cloud a high priority. Until DoD has worked through the challenges associated with moving to together with operating inwards an enterprise-wide cloud surround together with instituted the organizational together with operational changes required to get got payoff of the speed together with flexibility of a robust cloud environment, it makes no sense to add together the challenge of simultaneously operating multiple clouds. It is of import to get got a strategy for moving to the cloud together with to enable the myriad DoD components to get got the fourth dimension to figure out how to purpose the JEDI vehicle effectively.
Daniel Gouré, Ph.D., is a vice president at the public-policy query scream back tank Lexington Institute. Goure has a background inwards the populace sector together with U.S.A. of America federal government, virtually latterly serving every bit a fellow member of the 2001 Department of Defense Transition Team. You tin follow him on Twitter at @dgoure together with the Lexington Institute @LexNextDC. Read his total bio here.
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