April 30, 2009

DISA's Cloud Computing Initiatives

Cloud computing is among the hottest topics in the federal government, with its efficiencies promising to save agencies and eventually taxpayers money. Despite its attractiveness, few agencies have implemented any type of cloud computing initiative, mostly because of IT security concerns.

The Defense Information Systems Agency is among the few government agencies actively involved in cloud computing. In this interview, Henry Sienkiewicz, technical program advisor in DISA's Computing Services Directorate, discusses how DISA:

Employs cloud computing securely behind its own firewall;

Wrestles with the cultural change to a new computing model; and

Collaborates with vendors to host and manage their commercial software-as-a-service applications on DISA servers.

...more