Today the TechAmerica SLG cloud commission (SLG-CC) is releasing their final report on cloud for State and Local Government. The commission’s goal was to further the adoption of cloud by State and Local governments and to educate them on the benefits of cloud and how to procure it. This commission is a direct followup from the cloud comission that TechAmerica formed at the request of former CIO Vivek Kundra whose focus was cloud in the Public Sector. The SLG cloud commission will specifically address some of the major roadblocks with cloud access and deployment that are unique to states and localities– including procurement practices – and deliver recommendations for surmounting barriers to cloud in their agencies.
I was honored to serve on both of these commissions as a deputy to Sterling Phillips, GTSI’s CEO, on the Federal commission and as a commissioner with Prem Jadhwani as my deputy for the State and Local commission.
You can just imagine how much work goes into a commission like this. Not only did they create a great report, but this commission undertook the ambitious goal of deploying a web site of case studies where other state and local governments could go to find information about other governments and how they are using cloud in their own agencies. This announcement is the result of great work by a whole host of people chaired by Tarkan Maner, President and CEO of Wyse Technology, Daniel Kent the Public Sector CTO for Cisco, and David L. Cohn, Ph.D., Program Director, Smarter Cloud, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. You can find a full list of all the companies that participated at http://www.techamericafoundation.org/cloud2-slg-commissioners .
The report itself is amazing, but to me, the most important part of the commission was the creation of the web site. This is a place where state and local customers can go to see some of the most innovative ways that their fellow public sector users have implemented cloud to their benefit. I have the same goal for my forthcoming book on Cloud in the Public Sector; not only to educate but to show through case studies and examples where others in the public sector have already taken advantage of the various forms of cloud available today.
The link for the case study portal is: http://www.cloud4slg.org/
If you would like to watch the live feed of the report release please join us.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/slg-cc
As always, thanks for reading. Follow me on twitter at @GTSICTO.