Should be government be in the cloud broker business?

NO; however, it must play a significant role now in order to gain later.

 

I’m convinced that in order for the Shared Services “aka Cloud” Broker to be effective and efficient along with providing cost savings to the consumer, the brokered service(s) must be a commodity or treated as a commodity.  Providers of current commodities do not have a vested interest in this strategy; however, if the government can define business objectives that can be supported by industry defined standards, interface specifications, and Government Service Level Agreements (w/ industry partners)  then we will see progress in cloud computing and realization of true cost savings.  I also believe that the cloud broker will be limited by the procurement and acquisition systems that the government has in place.  Most procurement and acquisition systems, in government, lack the agility to keep up with the pace of IT transformation or provide a franchisable methodology for leveraging the rapid acquisition of “scale-able” aka “pay by the drink” share IT services across government.

Case Study:  http://www.nextgov.com/cloud-computing/2013/02/defense-and-intelligence-community-pursue-conflicting-cloud-plans/61249/?oref=nextgov_today_nl#disqus_thread

The Defense Department's "joint information environment" and the intelligence arena's "intelligence community information technology environment" share the same goal of decreasing costs and increasing security by shifting work to applications accessible on any device.  The two setups, however, are being constructed separately and differently.  "To date, implementation of their respective IT and telecommunications visions has consumed significant personnel and financial resources. This has limited the ability of both to coordinate their respective efforts to ensure complementary, mutually supportive efforts,"

The government should not be in broker business; although, I understand temporarily that it has a leadership role until it is able to more clearly define its business requirements and objectives to the industry at large.  Industry will drive the innovations yet to come based on the defined business objectives, priorities, and measures articulated by government leaders.  The government cannot afford to remain focused on "blinking lights" but should be focused on business objectives and defining its requirements.

The "Chief Information Officer must evolve into the Chief Innovation Officer" who is focused on leveraging technologies “ for business value.  The broker’s role will be significant in the next few years of IT evolution.

 

If you are interested in learning more about how industry and support the business objectives of the government, contact me and we can discuss.

 

Chris Beckford

www.etranservices.com