Federal Cloud Capability RFI Released by U.S. Government
Reuven Cohen
the United States released its cloud computing RFI earlier this
afternoon. I was fortunate to have been included in recent
consultations with the government, and have been impressed by the
vision of this administration and the speed with which they've taken
action.
What makes this RFI especially exciting is that for the first time
things are really starting to move very quickly toward the creation of
a federal cloud capability including an actual budget which has been
included in the 2010 federal budget recommendation released earlier
this week by the White House. In reviewing the Federal Cloud RFI it
seems that a federal "elastic computing cloud" may soon be a reality.
To give you some background, the RFI is provided by the GSA Office of
the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), in concert with the IT
Infrastructure Line of Business (ITI LoB), which has requested
capability statements and responses to examination of cloud related
business models, pricing models, and Service Level Agreements (SLA)
from vendors who provide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings.
The IT Infrastructure Line of Business (ITI LoB) is a government-wide
initiative sponsored by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The
ITI LoB focuses on the effective use of IT Infrastructure systems,
services and operational practices in the federal government. The
General Services Administration (GSA) has been designated by OMB as
the Managing Partner for this initiative, but governance is shared
across more than two dozen agencies.
For me the most important aspect of this RFI is the emphasis they've
placed on cloud Computing Interoperability and Portability
specifically in #5 of the RFI Doc. Something I've been pushing for in
my recent Washington meetings. I'm ecstatic they've included some my
recommendations including an "exit strategy", prevention of vendor
lockin and multi-cloud (“cloud-to-cloud”) support.
Below are are from Question 5 of the RFI (Interoperability and Portability)
5.1 Describe your recommendations regarding “cloud-to-cloud”
communication and ensuring interoperability of cloud solutions.
5.2 Describe your experience in weaving together multiple different
cloud computing services offered by you, if any, or by other vendors.
5.3 As part of your service offering, describe the tools you support
for integrating with other vendors in terms of monitoring and managing
multiple cloud computing services.
5.4 Please explain application portability; i.e. exit strategy for
applications running in your cloud, should it be necessary to vacate.
5.5 Describe how you prevent vendor lock in.
See RFI here:
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=d208ac8b8687dd9c6921d2633603aedb&tab=core&_cview=0&cck=1&au=&ck=
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Reuven Cohen
CCIF Instigator
Rao Dronamraju
Reuven,
Thanks!....Good document to learn what the Fed requirements (at a very high
level) seem to be.....
Rao