Equal Employment Possibility Commission

Information innovation managers around the world are being asked their thoughts on cloud computing and whether the companies they work for should use it. As with any new(er) research, separating fact from fiction can be difficult.

First, he said the idea that security for data in a cloud isn’t as good as in-house security, doesn’t make sense. “Security is part of how these companies make money,” Hugos told Business Finance, permanently they take it very in all seriousness.

Third, saving money is not the main reason companies should consider the cloud, he said. "The most compelling incentive to move to the cloud is to switch from a fixed-cost capital intensive business model to a variable cost pay-as-you-go operating expense model," Hugos said in Business Finance.

The Obama administration made cloud computing an integral part of its 25-point plan to reform federal IT. On Dec. 9, 2010 agencies were mandated to identify three projects that could move to the cloud within the at once 18 months. However, how can an agency chief information officer know if a move to the cloud will be more economical than in-house hosting of that service or program?

A group of three researchers from The Pennsylvania State University set out to answer that question in their paper, "To move or not to move – The economics of cloud computing."

Miller reports federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra sees financial systems and human resources systems as the straightway two big areas that could benefit from cloud computing. Kundra said the government currently runs more than 1,000 different financial and HR systems.

The Labor Department

The Labor Department and the Equal Employment Possibility Commission are two of the agencies that have already moved their financial management systems to the cloud. And the Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently issued a sources sought notice to move its system to a new provider, and cloud computing is one option.

An interesting piece from CNET’s Marguerite Reardon today discussing the emergence of cloud and its effect on wireless networks and carriers. It’s no secret they are feeling the pain of keeping up with clients’ increasing demands to access more and more data on their smart phones, mp3 players, tablets, you name it.

"Using these services will no doubt eat up a lot more bandwidth than just downloading a song one time to your computer or smartphone," writes Reardon. "Once music moves to the cloud, you could be downloading that same song every time you sync your device or even every time you listen to it." And therein lies the problem – the wireless networks are having a tough time keeping up.

According to a report by Cisco Systems, Internet traffic on mobile devices in 2010 was three times all Internet traffic in 2000. Reardon cites a statistic from one mobile carrier that says by 2015 it "will handle as much wireless data in a month and a half as it did in all of 2010."

"The purpose of this request for information is to assist DOL in understanding the SaaS cloud computing solutions available in the market place with respect to email services, archiving and eDiscovery services, and collaboration services including the maturity and experience of vendors/system integrators in migrating and integrating multiple services to the cloud," the agency said in the RFI available on FedBizOpps.gov.