Government in the Cloud

Some may think that government “has its head in the clouds.”

Actually, it does, according to President Obama and his federal CIO, Vivek Kundra. Regardless of political opinions or persuasions, it’s true that the U.S. government is one of the foremost early adopters and advocates of cloud computing.

USAspending.gov

A case in point is the federal government’s IT Dashboard, launched on June 30 and part of the USAspending.gov portal.  The IT Dashboard provides visibility into the IT funding and projects of 28 federal agencies.

President Bush signs transparency act while co-author Obama observes.

Then-Senator Obama, in 2006, actually introduced the bill for transparency of the federal budget (the Obama-Coburn 2006 Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act). USASpending.gov and the IT Dashboard are products of that bill.

Apps.gov

On September 15, Federal CIO Vivek Kundra and the General Services Administration released Apps.Gov, a storefront for quick procurement of government-approved cloud-computing solutions. In this interview with InformationWeek, General Services Administration CIO Casey Coleman discusses more ways the GSA is paving the way to cloud computing for government.

Data.gov

Earlier this year, on May 15, the federal government launched Data.gov, a site that offers complete federal datasets to the public. On May 9, the National Institute of Standards and Technology published its working definition of cloud computing.

In this interview with Government Technology, Federal CIO Vivek Kundra discusses the IT Dashboard, Data.gov, and future plans of using dashboards for state and local government, and “every aspect of government operations, not just technology projects, but also health care, energy and education. Once that data is made available to the public, you can do interesting mashups, create applications and innovate in spaces where innovation is needed at a time when the only way we can lead is through innovation in a global economy.”

It will be interesting to see the U.S. government’s cloud-computing initiatives unfold over the coming years.

Washington: “What is cloud computing, and is it revolutionary?”

Jefferson: “The NIST published a working definition here.”

Roosevelt: “I am concerned about security, privacy, and compliance.”

Lincoln: “Those concerns will be resolved peacefully.”

What do you see happening in government adoption and promotion of cloud computing over the next several years?