The Homeland Security Department is putting cloud computing policy into practice, as the department begins migrating all of its public-facing, non-sensitive Web sites onto platforms maintained entirely by commercial cloud providers.
In addition, DHS is laying the groundwork to move two other programs to the cloud:an employment verification system and a data center services program. Keep reading →
Whether the government’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan has actually worked may be the stuff of contentious political debate, but even partisans seem to agree that the processes and systems designed to track that money are helping to lay the foundation for better transparency and accountability in government spending.
Case in point: Rep. Darryl Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and a vociferous advocate of transparency and accountability in federal spending, said that while he continues to have concerns about “the effectiveness and prudence” of President Obama’s trillion-dollar stimulus, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board [RAT Board] has provided “a commendable model of transparency…the tremendous success of the RAT Board is worthy of replication throughout the federal bureaucracy.” Keep reading →
The Environmental Protection Agency is taking the Obama administration’s “cloud first” policy on information technology to heart. All of the agency’s applications, systems and services are under consideration for migration to a cloud-computing environment.
“Everything is on the table for discussion,” said Malcolm Jackson, EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Environmental Information and chief information officer. “I ask the question, ‘Why not cloud?’ Everything is an option. We don’t have any sacred cows.” Keep reading →