Microsoft

The Cloud And The Courts

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In mid-March 2012, a German court took a first step toward judicial regulation of the cloud. A court in Hamburg ruled that the file-hosting site Rapidshare must proactively filter the content uploaded by its users.

The ruling may well be the first of its kind. In America, for example, as long as sites that host content take down any uploads that infringe a copyright when they receive notice, they are under no obligation to filter content as it is added to the site. In contrast, the Rapidshare decision (which came as the result of a lawsuit by German booksellers) requires the site to filter out infringing content before it is posted to the Web. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 17, 2012 at 11:21 AM

Cloud Tools Could Level Campaign Playing Field

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Officials at ElectionMall Technologies Inc. are counting on cloud computing to help achieve company’s the goal of giving candidates-from those running for national positions to candidates in school board elections-the tools they need to manage efficient and effective political campaigns.

The company, founded in 1999, has migrated its suite of Web-based campaign and election applications to Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform and formally released Version 2 of the suite, called Campaign Cloud, this week. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 6, 2012 at 10:00 AM

Mobility Is About Applications as Much as Hardware

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A new computing device could revolutionize mobile federal computing. It’s super thin, has a potential battery life of close to nine hours, an ultra high resolution screen and a glass touchpad. It boots in seconds, has 4G connectivity, and it’s all wrapped in carbon fiber and aluminum for lightness and ruggedness.

It’s made by Dell. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 29, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Minnesota Moves Executive Branch Employees To Cloud Communications

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All of Minnesota’s executive branch government employees are now working in a cloud environment, enabling the state to more effectively collaborate across agencies, reduce costs, expand its IT abilities, improve citizen services, and increase security.

The move involves 35,000 employees in more than 70 executive agencies using Microsoft Office 365 to securely access email, share calendars, IM, video conference and collaboratively work on projects over the web. It is the largest state deployment of the technology, said Stuart McKee, CTO, US State and Local Government, Microsoft. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 21, 2012 at 3:00 PM

Women In Federal IT: Bringing Innovation To The Private Sector

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In honor of Women’s History Month, Breaking Gov highlights women’s relatively recent breakthrough in the growing and increasingly crucial world of federal IT. This is the second of a three-part series on women in federal IT that reveals who these leaders are and how they’re making a difference.

With 26 years of government experience, Kim Nelson moved to the private sector six years ago, taking her vast public sector knowledge to Microsoft. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 13, 2012 at 10:00 AM

What You Missed At Microsoft’s CIO Summit

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Nearly 300 government, health and education IT officials trekked to the 10th annual Public Sector CIO Summit in Redmond, Wash., last week sponsored by Microsoft. For those who couldn’t make the trip, Breaking Gov sat down with Greg Myers, who heads Microsoft‘s federal business, to get his read on what agency officials are asking for most – and what he thought were the highlights for federal IT officers at this year’s summit.

Myers, a former Oracle and BearingPoint executive who joined Microsoft in 2009, spoke with Breaking Gov Editorial Director, Wyatt Kash, about the coming merger of IT and telecommunications, the growing importance of cross platform eDiscovery, what’s ahead in cloud computing and mobility, and what federal officials can expect from Windows 8, Skype, and other Microsoft products. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 6, 2012 at 12:36 PM

Microsoft Plans Community Cloud For Government Agencies

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Microsoft officials revealed Thursday that the company is planning to develop a new dedicated multi-tenant, government community cloud computing environment.

The move is part of a broadening effort at Microsoft and its public sector division to meet emerging needs among federal agencies whose officials are trying to find faster, more economical and secure ways to migrate parts of their computing operations to the cloud. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 2, 2012 at 4:25 PM

Windows 8, Mobile Platforms Unveiled At Public Sector CIO Summit

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This story was updated March 6 to reflect additional details about Windows 8 for enterprise organizations.

Chief information officers from government, education and health sectors got the latest look at the converging world of mobile and workplace computing platforms – and the new beta release of Windows 8 –at a public sector CIO summit sponsored by Microsoft Corp. Feb. 29 in Redmond, Wash. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 1, 2012 at 10:50 AM

Mobility Takes On High Profile Among Feds

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Mobile technology will clearly take a higher profile role as federal leaders develop IT plans in the coming year, but it was clear from several who spoke on the topic Thursday that strategies vary widely between agencies.

Speakers at a mobile government summit at the Hotel Monaco in Washington, D.C., said mobility plans must be integrated into ongoing efforts rather than evolving as a separate entity. (See related story, “Federal Mobility Plan Takes Shape.”) Keep reading →

 /  Published February 23, 2012 at 3:00 PM

Cybersecurity Act Of 2012 Challenged on Capitol Hill; McCain To Draft Alternative

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Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) on Thursday ripped into the authors and supporters of the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 for what he called “legislative bullying,” suggesting that democrats are attempting to push a flawed bill through the Senate without input from those that oppose the bill.

During a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, McCain sent an unexpected shot across the bow of committee chairman Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), stating that a lack of transparency in the legislative process that led to the drafting of the bill has now forced him and at least seven other Republicans to begin work on “an alternative” cybersecurity bill that they plan to introduce before the end of the month. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 16, 2012 at 5:54 PM
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