GSA is also aiming to give its Apps.gov cloud computing Website a jumpstart by adding a new information-heavy area on Apps.gov. While Apps.gov has gotten off to a slow start in terms of actual transactions completed -- only 170 through early May, according to the Wall Street Journal -- visitors have been using Apps.gov to do research and so GSA this week launched info.apps.gov, a site to give those visitors more of what they've been looking for.
In addition to the cloud RFQ, info.apps.gov includes links to highlighted articles about public sector cloud computing, a calendar of upcoming cloud-related events, details about cloud computing, reference documents on everything from the government's cloud strategy to NIST's cloud computing definition, 29 possible usage scenarios, and case studies from several agencies.
Meanwhile, the CIO Council on Thursday released a new report, "State of Public Sector Cloud Computing," which outlines the scope of federal cloud initiatives and provides 24 case studies of cloud computing in federal, state and local government.
The government is also moving forward with a recently announced shared security certification and accreditation process known as FedRAMP, which will be led in the near term by GSA CISO Kurt Garbars, who this week took on an additional role as chair of the cloud computing security work group of the CIO Council's cloud computing advisory council.
FedRAMP, which NIST computer scientist Peter Mell characterized Thursday at NIST's Cloud Computing Forum and Workshop as a "government-wide initiative to provide joint authorization services," will be in a planning phase until the end of the fiscal year as details like how it will be implemented and who will pay for it are worked out.
