Inside LandWarNet: Cloud Computing on the Horizon?

Filed under Technology by on August 5, 2010 at 9:43 am {one comment}

U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, located at Fort Monmouth, N.J.Edric Thompson is a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, located at Fort Monmouth, N.J.

Good, informative Bloggers Roundtable by Lt. Gen. Sorenson. Check it out if you missed it. By the way, the contest-winning apps are available to DoD CAC holders at https://storefront.mil/army/.

I wanted to pick up where I left off with one of yesterday’s “hot” track sessions at LandWarNet: cloud computing. I know a lot of our engineers were planning on attending it. It’s a related topic that supports Apps for the Army processes – literally.

Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, where shared resources, software and information are provided on demand. Users can access web-based tools or applications and use through a web browser as if it were a program installed locally on their own computer. Clouds often appear as single points of access for all consumers’ computing needs.

Here’s the good: a web service within a virtual machine in the cloud can expand and utilize more resources (computation, memory, storage) as its utilization increases. It would also make sense for Mobile devices (smartphones, handhelds, etc) to take advantage of cloud computing, by accessing data and applications from an enterprise server in the cloud rather than having to worry about the expense and complexity of adding mobile device support to existing local servers.

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Educate, Inform, Connect: A Success Story

Filed under Education & Culture, Technology by on June 10, 2010 at 8:55 pm {one comment}

Brenda Roth is the Assistant Dean for Curriculum at the NDU iCollege located at Ft. McNair in Washington, D.C.

Colleges and Universities routinely sponsor events like symposia, colloquia, seminars, and conferences. These events create environments where like-minded individuals come together to discuss topics, issues, and problems and collectively work together for greater understanding and problem-solving. Almost everyone likes to attend these events with their keynote speakers, breakout sessions, and bottomless cups of coffee. This is education and networking on a grand scale. But symposia must have a return on investment (ROI) for the sponsoring organization in order for the events to have value.

In 2008, the National Defense University’s Information Resources Management College (NDU iCollege) celebrated its 20th anniversary by creating a series of Information Leader Symposia for the purpose of bringing together diverse groups of government leaders to solve mutual problems and connect in creative and meaningful ways. The topics for 2008 included Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Government 2.0, and in 2009, the College hosted a Cloud Computing Conference keynoted by Vivek Kundra, the first Federal Government Chief Information Officer. All of these events were highly successful and they highlighted the College’s educational goals of crossing boundaries, building communities and transforming organizations.

In 2010, the iCollege took it to an entirely new level by planning and hosting several international regional symposia with the first being offered in Singapore, July 13-14, 2010, at the Shangri-La Hotel. The event, Regional Collaboration in Cybersecurity: Securing the Cloud, Web, and Virtual Networks, brings together key components of today’s technology while answering the challenge of information security. (more…)

Defense Media CTO: Clouds on the Horizon

Filed under Technology by on March 5, 2010 at 10:40 am {one comment}
Craig Kaucher is the Chief Technology and Information Officer at Defense Media Activity.

Craig Kaucher is the Chief Technology and Information Officer at Defense Media Activity.

Craig Kaucher is the Chief Technology and Information Officer at the Defense Media Activity. These are his personal views and do not in any way constitute an endorsement on behalf of the Defense Media Activity, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government of any particular commercial product or service.

The phrase “cloud computing” may seem to be one of the most over-hyped phrases of the past few years, as every vendor seemed suddenly able to offer cloud services and every tech manager touted progress in moving their enterprise to the cloud. Yet, when you dig beneath the hype and look for real tangible evidence of organizations that truly live in the cloud, few large scale examples exist.

That’s not to say that many smaller organizations, and especially solo operators, haven’t made the leap. But, those examples are perhaps more of the “bleeding edge” than the norm. Government organizations, in particular, have both the usual and some unique challenges in moving to the cloud.

What does it take to move large enterprises to the cloud? I’d say it takes a cloud services enterprise, for starters, and then proof that it works.  A cloud services enterprise, as I’d define it, is a service provider with a one-stop shop for people and organizations to get all of the typical and most used computing services that they are used to at their desks. The proof comes with a steady record of successful operations, good security, and continuous improvements to products and services. (more…)

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