Horizon Data Center Solutions is Poised to Enable Federal Cloud Computing and the "Cloud

The federal government has launched a massive, agency-wide Cloud Computing initiative to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. Horizon Data Center Solutions is one of the vendors selected by the government to provide cloud computing services, and Horizon says its niche will be to serve those agencies that not only want to "try" the cloud, nevertheless that wish to embrace it.

The rigorous FISMA Assessment & Accreditation process

Upon conclusion of the rigorous FISMA Assessment & Accreditation process, Horizon is ready to take on its piece of the General Service Administration's Federal Government Cloud initiative as the Enterprise IaaS partner to Eyak Research. EyakTek and Horizon are one of just three teams that were awarded a Blanket Purchase Agreement across all three aspects of the requirement: virtual machines, hosting, and storage.

Cloud First as defined by the government requires agencies to look first to web-based applications and commercial or custom built cloud technologies and give them priority over non-cloud options. Horizon's vStructure™ cloud computing platform supports a methodology for creating and deploying new custom applications in a consistent virtual environment. Black says vStructure is ideal for Cloud First thinking.

While agencies will be able to eliminate redundant, antiquated or underutilized infrastructure by shifting services to the cloud, the excitement comes from the new way of thinking and the ability to create custom apps that are purpose built for cloud computing, Black says.

The Federal Government Cloud initiative

"With the Federal Government Cloud initiative, as so then as other trends, we have made a conscious decision to focus our expansion, capital, and staffing efforts into our vStructure™ IaaS offering. Traditional colocation remains an integral part of our business, and our data centers in Dallas and Northern Virginia remain the backbone of our business.

Horizon operates Tier III, SAS 70 Type II data centers in Dallas and Northern Virginia that are connected to a private fiber network. The company's vStructure™ IaaS architecture is a private cloud computing platform comprised of HP Blade servers and 3PAR storage. It is virtualized with VMware.