Refusing to accept the 30 percent unemployment rate for California veterans between the ages of 18 and 24, Veterans 360 (V360) offers recently-separated combat veterans the opportunity for a solid and productive future. Using a four-pronged approach which encompasses engagement, education, employment, and healing, V360 prepares and equips veterans with the interpersonal and professional skills they will need for a successful transition back into civilian life.
↧
Veterans 360: Helping Young Combat Veterans Succeed
↧
Managing IaaS and DBaaS Clouds with Oracle Released
Over the holidays I actually spent some time reviewing the newly released "Managing IaaS and DBaaS Clouds with Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c". This book is a step-by-step tutorial filled with practical examples which will show readers how to configure and manage IaaS and DBaaS with Oracle Enterprise Manager. If you are a cloud administrator or a user of self-service provisioning systems offered by this Oracle product, this book is ideal for you. It will also help administrators who want to understand the available chargeback mechanisms.
↧
↧
TwinStrata Extends Cloud Access & Mobility with Storage Management
TwinStrata on Tuesday announced the general availability of the latest release of its CloudArray software. Customers using the new release gain broader file access capabilities, file sharing across sites, secure bulk ingestion and easy cloud-to-cloud migration.
“Our customers are demanding greater sophistication and control over their cloud storage environments, said Nicos Vekiarides, founder and CEO of TwinStrata. “Just getting them to the cloud is no longer enough – users want to store more data with reduced administration and more robust functionality than their on-premises storage systems.”
↧
Interoperability: A Much Needed Cloud Computing Focus
Cloud computing transitions information technology (IT) from being "systems of physically integrated hardware and software" to "systems of virtually integrated services". This transition makes interoperability the difference between the success and failure of IT deployments, especially in the Federal government. Recent government IT failures like the healthcare portal roll out highlight this critical difference.
Leading specialists serving on the federal health IT committee have voice their concern about the lack of comprehensive interoperability. "I'm concerned that this program isn't focused on creating an inter-operable system that would allow unaffiliated systems to share medical information,” Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said in an emailed statement to Fox News.
↧
IBM Hybrid Cloud Debate: Are Hybrid Clouds the End All Be All?
A hybrid cloud may become the solution as the debate between public vs private cloud becomes so 2013. The industry’s experts will debate on when the hybrid clouds are and are not the be all and end all and if the infrastructure supporting the hybrid clouds really matters. As stated by IBM, “Dynamic hybrid cloud environments are harmonizing computing demands and capabilities – public and private clouds, on and off-premise clouds, and traditional IT environments.”
↧
↧
Why State & Local Governments Should Be Prepared for Cloud
You are invited to attend the Cloud Webinar Series: Why State & Local Governments Should be Prepared for Cloud. This educational webinar is brought to you by RISC Networks, and will be hosted on BrightTalk.com at 12:00 pm on March 26, 2014. The webinar will present Moving to the Cloud: Expert Insights by Special Guest, GovCloud Network Founder (@GovCloud) Mr.Kevin Jackson. The best practices of cloud migrations will be explored. A panel discussion of the benefits of Cloud IaaS for State & Local Government will be presented. The panel features the founder and Chief Analyst of RISC Networks, Mr. Jeremy Littlejohn.
↧
NCOIC Debuts Roadmap to Manage Cyber-Secure Hybrid Computing Environment
The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) has begun offering an open process that will enable governments, agencies and businesses to create and manage a secure, hybrid IT computing environment quickly and cost effectively.
Known as the NCOIC Rapid Response Capability (NRRC™), the process defines how to build a federated cloud infrastructure that provides a foundation for information sharing within a secure environment, enabling a diverse group of users to exchange data via their different technology applications so they can work on a common project or problem.
↧
Inspiring Change - Why We Need More Women in Tech
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is Inspiring Change. As one of Europe’s leading cloud companies iomart has long championed the employment possibilities that working in the field of technology offers to women. Sadly current statistics show that our industry is still falling short. According to research by e-skills UK, only 17% of employees in IT & Telecoms are female. I had the pleasure of interviewing iomart's Group Technical Manager, Anne Bryson, about her career and her thoughts on this major issue.
↧
Birds, Booze and Tim Berners Lee - Memories of the World Wide Web
Like many organisations across the globe today iomart is celebrating the 25th birthday of the World Wide Web. To mark this anniversary we asked our staff to share their memories of the early days of the World Wide Web and we’ll come to their recollections in a moment. But one member of our board really was there at its birth. Non Executive Chairman Ian Ritchie CBE recalls meeting a young man with an idea. Step forward Tim Berners-Lee.
↧
↧
Connectloud’s uCloud Provides Multi-Tenant Automation Across Clouds
Connectloud’s uCloud empowers enterprises with quickly scalable, secure, multi-tenant automation across Clouds of any type, for clients from any segment, across geographically dispersed data centers.
“CIOs today face paradoxical demands and challenges in both constructing an agile IT infrastructure, and reducing IT operating costs,” said Zeeshan Naseh, CEO of Connectloud. “At Connectloud, our mission is to deliver a unified Cloud solution that provides true business value, and uCloud™ is our initial step in that direction.”
↧
PerspecSys Survey Reveals Cloud-based Security Concerns for 2014
Today PerspecSys announced the results of a survey conducted at the 2014 RSA Conference concerning the attitudes and policies of organizations towards cloud-based security. After polling 130 security professionals on the show floor of the RSA Conference, PerspecSys found that "an overwhelming 74 percent believe security for cloud-based data in 2014 will be a bigger concern than securing data on-premise. In fact, 66 percent of security pros still view the cloud as more difficult to secure than on-premise options."
↧
Author and Tech Strategist Melvin Greer Profiled by WashingtonExec
A senior fellow and chief strategist at Lockheed Martin, Mel has more than 29 years’ experience in systems and software engineering and is a recognized expert in Service Oriented Architecture, Cloud Computing and Predictive Analytics. His research fields include Nanotechnology, Synthetic Biology and Gamification. His new book, “21st Century Leadership: Harnessing Innovation, Accelerating Business Success” is book centered on leadership and its relationship to business. Mel also leads The Greer Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. The institute is organized for educational research and scientific application of Greer’s theories on leadership and innovation and addresses society’s related problems.
↧
ITAAC/ICH & TIA to Host Commercial Cloud Sourcing Brainstorming Session
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.
↧
↧
MBO Partners Spotlights GovCloud Founder Kevin L. Jackson
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.
↧
Facilitators Announced for NGA Agile Cloud Brainstorming Event
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.
↧
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]()
![Bookmark and Share]()
![Cloud Musings]()
( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - © Copyright Kevin L. Jackson 2012)
-->
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
-->
↧
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.
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
-->
↧
↧
Peak 10 Achieves Cisco Powered DRaaS Certification
Solidifying its position as a leading IT infrastructure and cloud provider, Peak 10 has been named the first provider in the Americas to achieve the Cisco Powered Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) designation under the Cisco® Cloud and Managed Services Advanced Certification. This certification recognizes Peak 10 as a provider with the capability to sell and deliver cloud and managed services for companies needing to accelerate time to market and time to revenue.
↧
ICH/ITAAC Announces Second Agile Cloud Environment Event
The 2nd Agile Cloud Environment event will be held on May 21, 2014 at TIA Headquarters. This event will focus on development of the Agile Cloud Environment Service Catalog. The meeting will feature a series of 30 minute presentations during which prospective government users of the "Third Rail" will voice their desires and expectations with regard to the postulated cloud services. This event will also serve as an opportunity for industry attendees to offer queries of their own to the government presenters.
↧
PDNS Offers “Anchor” Cloud Services to Agile Cloud Consortium
Private Digital Network Services (PDNS) and partners will provide its national, Private Digital Network (PDN) core and a suite of highly sought after services to the Interoperability Clearinghouse Agile Cloud effort. Its partners include Gannett Company Inc., Global Interactive Solutions, ICON Voice, and others. Gannett designed and implemented the PDN to support its national base of 300+ business units, which include well known digital properties such as CareerBuilder.com and Cars.com, and media properties such as DefenseNews and USA Today. Through a joint services agreement, Gannett has enabled PDNS to leverage this high capacity, national, private network asset to provide network and hosted services to commercial and ST/Local government entities. These services are now being extended to the ICH Agile Cloud effort. Applications and services to be provided include high speed, hosted voice/video/data, content delivery, virtual machine and storage provisioning and disaster recovery services.
↧