Monday, April 28, 2014

Interoperability Clearinghouse Launches "Agile Cloud" Collaboration


Last Wednesday, Maj Gen, USAF (Ret) John T. Brennan, Interoperability Clearinghouse (ICH) Executive Director, kicked off the Agile Cloud collaboration. This industry-wide effort is targeted at developing an open and inclusive cloud service brokerage environment capable of rapidly provisioning innovative technologies to the US Government on a fee for service basis. This cloud services environment will favor existing commercial services over custom development, will incorporate industry standards and will enforce a consistent implementation environment. Additional key characteristics will include:
  • Interoperable technologies;
  • A consistent acquisition model;
  • Standard technical assessment framework; and a
  • Standardized service level management model.
A key difference between this and other government focused cloud computing efforts is that the Agile Cloud environment will be funded and implemented by industry.

The kick-off event's keynote speaker was Polly Schaffer, Industry Innovation Advocate for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Emphasizing the dramatic departure from "business as usual" this model represents, she restated quotes she made at last week's GEOINT Symposium:


Polly Shaffer addresses GEOINT 2013* Symposium
“We need to communicate NGA’s vision, needs, challenges and opportunities. “To increase transparency, we need to expose more about NGA to prospective partners in an unclassified environment. Connecting with prospective partners will help the agency learn their capabilities, interest areas and ideas." 

"The clearance process is another area that needs to be streamlined to make cleared people available on-demand. The agency must also look beyond the traditional ways of contracting services for innovative ways to compensate partners for their services. We’re talking about pay-per-use and pay-per-impact on mission." 

"The new compensation model will seek to implement agile ways to contract with partners, so that getting a contract could be a simple as clicking a link. We will develop and implement processes and high-performance technical solutions that allow globally distributed virtual teams to be formed on-demand, based on topics, people’s registered skills and security classifications. NGA with its customers and partners will co-create capabilities, content, products and services in an online common environment that builds on our collaboration efforts."

"The target for implementing these changes is 2017. The era of the [request for proposal] and traditional acquisition is waning. We have to craft a new national defense economic model based on a dis-aggregated supply side.”


Kshemendra Paul, Program Manager,
Information Sharing Environment
Pamela Wise-Martinez, Senior Enterprise Architect, PM-Information Sharing Environment, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, also made a presentation at the event. Her remarks focused on how artifacts and guidance from "Project Interoperability" could be leveraged to make the envisioned Agile Cloud a reality. The goal of Project Interoperability is to help government and non-government organizations identify a baseline of terms, tools, and techniques to connect networks and systems. They represent an architecture-agnostic approach that promises to normalize the way information sharing technology is developed. This project is managed by Kshemendra Paul, Program Manager, Information Sharing Environment (ISE), which is the national office charged with advancing responsible information sharing in support of counterterrorism and homeland security. ISE works with federal, state, local, and tribal government partners, and with the private sector.

This event was the first of three scheduled organizational meetings. The next event is scheduled for May 21, 2014. ICH invites all interested parties to follow this industry collaboration by joining the Agile Cloud Working Group on LinkedIn. Additional information can also be requested via email to AgileCloud@ICHnet.org

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Thursday, April 24, 2014

Thank You GetVoIP!!

Thank you for the honor of being named a "Top 100 Cloud Professionals to Follow on G+"! Congratulations also to my 99 colleagues.  Read more at:
http://getvoip.com/blog/2014/04/23/top-100-cloud-pros-google

http://getvoip.com/blog/2014/04/23/top-100-cloud-pros-google




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Monday, April 14, 2014

Facilitators Announced For NGA Agile Cloud Brainstorming Event

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/agile-sourcing-environment-for-commercial-cloud-tickets-11152773245


The Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (ITAAC) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) are announcing a slate of innovative leaders to serve as facilitators for the upcoming  "Agile Sourcing Environment for Commercial Cloud" brainstorming session being held in Alexandria, VA on April 23, 2014. Enjoying a great response thus far, industry participants include Boeing, Oracle, Google,SAP, Leidos and Capgemini. Government participants include the US Navy, US Army, US House of Representatives and GSA. The confirmed facilitator lineup is:




Prospective Customers & Missions: Phil Dixon - Google
Tentative Service Catalog: Roger Bernhardt - Boeing
Governance and Management: Colleen Dealey - Cloudbound
Service Provisioning: Dave Rose - Oracle
Service Level Agreements: Angela Smith - GSA
Sourcing and Acquisition Procedures: Young Nam - Virtustream

Due to conference room limitations and in response to numerous request,  "Virtual Attendee" tickets have now been made available. Only registered Virtual Attendee ticket holders will receive the relevant webcast information.

IT-ACC and TIA are looking forward to the innovation and transformative business models heralded by this important event.

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/agile-sourcing-environment-for-commercial-cloud-tickets-11152773245



ABOUT ITAAC: The Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (ITAAC) is a public/private partnership of concerned citizens, public interest groups, private sector sponsors and government partners working together to serve as a catalyst for positive change and evolution in the Information Technology Acquisition System to meet the demands of the 21st century.
 
ABOUT TIA: The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is the leading trade association representing the global information and communications technology (ICT) industries through standards development, government affairs, business opportunities, market intelligence, certification and world-wide environmental regulatory compliance. With support from its 600 members, TIA enhances the business environment for companies involved in telecommunications, broadband, mobile wireless, information technology, networks, cable, satellite, unified communications, emergency communications and the greening of technology. TIA is accredited by ANSI.

 


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Sunday, April 6, 2014

MBO Partners Spotlights GovCloud Founder Kevin L. Jackson

http://www.mbopartners.com/



Associate Spotlight
Interview with Kevin L. Jackson
MBO Associate Since 10/2013

1)    Tell us a little bit about what you do.
I am the CEO and founder of GovCloud Network, LLC. In a consultative role, I help companies develop and execute targeted media strategies via social media channels to over 1.5 million professionals across 20 industry verticals. With a specialty in cloud computing, we and our partners also provide the critical technical training and business education needed to thrive through the use of advanced information technology. For more information, please visit www.GovCloudNetwork.com.

2)    What led you to become an Independent Consultant?
My position as a senior executive at my previous firm didn't give me the latitude to participate fully in the rapidly growing cloud computing consultative market. I felt that the rewards of becoming an independent consultant in this business area far outweighed the risks.

3)    How has the independent career path changed your life?
Although I now personally drive the success or failure of my professional career, I also have the ability to select projects based on my own personal evaluation of their business merits. I enjoy the flexibility and challenge.


4)    How does MBO Partners make you more successful?
MBO Partners keeps me financially honest and professionally focused. That combination increases my odds of winning in a fiercely competitive marketplace.

5)    What book are you currently reading?
Right now I'm reading The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies by Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee and Jeff Cummings. This book takes a look at the forces driving the reinvention of our lives and our economy. It discusses how professions of all kinds are being upended as companies have been forced to transform or die. It tries to answer the question of why fewer workers at lower wages are driving productivity and profits upwards.

(Republished from MBO Partners March 2014 Newsletter)


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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

ITAAC/ICH and TIA To Host Commercial Cloud Sourcing Brainstorming Session for NGA



http://www.it-aac.org/itaachomepage.htmlhttps://www.tiaonline.org/

The Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (ITAAC) and Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) are honored to team with NGA in hosting the first "Agile Sourcing Environment for Commercial Cloud" brainstorming session, April 23, 2014 at TIA headquarters. This not for profit and free industry event is designed to improve cloud computing standardization and interoperability.


Polly Shaffer, NGA Industry Innovation Advocate, will be presenting at the "Agile Sourcing Environment for Commercial Cloud" brainstorming session on April 23, 2014. Jointly hosted by the ITAAC (http://www.it-aac.org/), Telecommunications Industry Association (http://www.TIAonline.org/) and NGA (https://www1.nga.mil/). Attendees will have the opportunity to collaborate with government representatives on conceptualizing a multi-vendor marketplace from which NGA and other government entities could quickly source and acquire innovative and interoperable cloud computing services (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS).  These services would be used to support unclassified operations.


Pamela J. Wise-Martinez, Senior Enterprise Architect,
Program Manager-Information Sharing Environment,
Office of the Director of National Intelligence
will also provide a briefing on "Project Interoperability" (http://project-interoperability.github.io/) a newly released set tools for efficiently building information interoperability across multiple organizations and IT systems. The envisioned cloud computing services environment will leverage this guidance to manage the consistent application of design principles and design standards.


These briefing will guide facilitated brainstorming sessions in the following functional areas:


- Prospective Customers & Missions
- Tentative Service Catalog
- Governance and Management
- Service Provisioning
- Service Level Agreements
- Sourcing and Acquisition Procedures

Subsequent sessions will be used to solidify a working model for implementation of the "Agile Sourcing Environment for Commercial Cloud" concept .
Date: April 23rd, 1-5pm

Topic: Agile Sourcing Environment for Commercial Cloud

Location:
1320 N. Courthouse Rd., Suite 200 Arlington, VA 22201, Courthouse Metro

RSVP:
Register using the button below, go online to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/agile-sourcing-environment-for-commercial-cloud-tickets-11152773245, call 703-768-0400 or email Kevin.Carroll@IT-AAC.org
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/agile-sourcing-environment-for-commercial-cloud-tickets-11152773245

Draft Agenda:

- 1300-1315    Welcome

- 1315-1345    Conceptual Overview - Polly Shaffer, NGA Industry Innovation Advocate

- 1345 -1415   Designing Interoperable Multi-vendor Cloud Environments - Pamela J. Wise-Martinez,
Senior Enterprise Architect, Program Manager-Information Sharing Environment, Office of the Director of National Intelligence

- 1415 - 1430   Break

- 1430 - 1530   Brainstorming Sessions (Select one topic)
- Prospective Customers & Missions
- Tentative Service Catalog
- Governance and Management
- Service Provisioning
- Service Level Agreements
- Sourcing and Acquisition Procedures

-1530-1545   Break

-1545-1700   Hot Wash / Next Steps

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