With the Washington Capitals having made the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Phrase “Off Center” means something a bit different than it might have a week ago. Regardless I had a great time recording Mark Amtower’s… Broadcast of My Interview w/Mark Amtower – Amtower Off Center
I teach a class at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) about the future of Information Technology.
One of the great things about doing this is how much I learn each semester, I find I always gain much, much more than I bring to the class (pointed out to me by the observant students …).
In a recent discussion thread one of the students had some interesting things to say about telecommuting which I thought deserved a wider audience. So with a tip of the hat to Neelima Jampani …Thoughts On Teleworking
I find myself these days on a regular basis having discussions, for one reason or another, about the impact of Information Technology and inevitably the Internet on organizations, life, society, culture, and in general, the individuals having the conversation.
About a decade ago, the first time I remember having this discussion with a friend of mine, he remarked that he felt his parents had experienced greater dislocation due to technological change than he had. His parents had lived through the growth of radio, the invention of television, the ubiquitous growth of telephones, and the creation and expansion of commercial air travel.
All he and I could come up with, at the time, were faxes, cell phones, and perhaps email; which while significant seemed less amazing than the list he had for his parents. That was a sobering conversation since the common wisdom was that everything was changing so radically. Having said that, I suspect that if I repeated that conversation today we would both come to a different conclusion.Why Is A Raven Like A Writing Desk or How I Literally Married the Internet
Reposted from AOL Government, http://gov.aol.com/2011/12/12/why-fedramp-is-worth-caring-about/.
If you have been at a recent Washington Capitals hockey game when the opponent scores a goal, you know the crowd routinely shouts out “Who cares!”
Last week, Steven VanRoekel, Federal CIO, released the long awaited OMB plan for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP; which reminds me to be thankful for pronounceable acronyms. The purpose of FedRAMP per the implementing OMB memorandum, is to “provide a cost-effective, risk-based approach for the adoption and use of cloud services”.
This last weekend I attended the Executive Leadership Conference (ELC) sponsored by ACT-IAC in Williamsburg. The opening night keynote speaker Scott Klososky, presented some interesting points but I felt left out some key issues; probably… Reflections At ELC: Why Klososky’s Keynote Missed The Mark
For all those who are near the Washington Convention Center today and tomorrow there is an interesting conference on Cloud Computing and Virtualization, http://govcloudconference.com/Events/2011/Home.aspx, Best of all, they reached back into ancient history, and asked me… Moving Into the Cloud – Practical Experience
In my previous entry regarding Cloud Computing, I discussed briefly one of the major reasons why organizations are turning to the cloud, saving costs. I pointed out some of the issues involved in achievable that goal.
While I also consider the possibility of cost savings associated with Cloud Computing important, I believe other implications are more important in the long-term. I discuss a second one today, and will touch on two more in the next few blog entries.
When we start thinking about moving applications to the cloud it leads us to reconsider how we develop applications. This change in thinking has, as a foundation, the move to object oriented design, and has been encouraged by a change in conceptual ownership. I talk about both of these in this post.Cloud Computing Thoughts – Part II
The Cloud Computing freight train roars on, if not with a lot of motion, at least with a lot of noise and tumult.
I have been part of a number of panels over the last few months which focused on the subject of Cloud Computing, the current state of the’art’, and as usual what barriers exist that need to be dealt with to make it easier to utilize. There certainly has been much written about it both pro and con and it remains a high-priority focus for the current Administrator and, in particular, Vivek Kundra, the Federal CIO.
For one of the graduate classes I am teaching this semester at the University of Maryland University College, the subject is touched upon as part of a broad look at technology changes and implications. The topic generated much comment by my students.
It seems to me that the subject starts from the wrong side of the discussion, the technology side. When the discussion turns to the impact, it starts at an important but not the most important concern, that of return-on-investment (ROI).
Today and in a number of future blog entries, I will talk about what I think are the current important issues associated with cloud computing. Today I start with what I perceive as a foundational issue, cost, but later in the week will move to what I believe are more important considerations and goals.
Note: I do not plan to rehash what cloud computing is, or is not, there are too many other write-ups that do this. Look at the National Institutes of Standards work on such definitions, I think it is pretty good.Cloud Computing Thoughts – Part I
There was a joke that circulated years ago that if you wanted to get additional budget for IT you just said it was for ‘The Internet’. No one was quite clear as to what they would do, but they knew they wanted to be on, or in, or connected to it.
In the Pentagon that joke morphed. Whenever someone wanted to get additional budget, the reason was to ‘Deal With China’. Well, in fact, maybe that is still true.
In technology today, the current budget justification phrase is ‘Cloud Computing’. Except in this case, exactly what Cloud Computing is or what it can do is even less clear than normal. On the other hand, that lack of clarity means there are lots and lots of meetings, seminars, and conferences that deal with trying to define Cloud Computing and provide advice on what to do about it.
In that context, I was on a panel Monday, May 3, that discussed Cloud Computing and the kinds of new skills that would be needed to support Cloud initiatives, http://events.1105govinfo.com/Events/Cloud-Computing-Summit-2010/Sessions/Monday/CC4.aspx.
Cloud Computing Panel at the Cloud Computing Summit
This coming Friday, April 16, the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University is hosting a conference to bring together CIO’s and Academic leaders to discuss some of the current issues facing IT. The conference welcome describes the nature of the conference pretty clearly:
“Welcome to the first Upstate CIO Conference, where CIOs from Upstate New York will connect, discuss industry trends and emerging technologies, and inform course content for information executives.
The Upstate CIO Conference is a one-day conference, held on Friday, April 16, 2010, at the School of Information Studies (iSchool) on the Syracuse University campus. The conference brings together Upstate CIOs and information technology professors to explore how academic research and professional experience come together to create innovative solutions to industry challenges, create industry trends, and educate professionals who can meet the needs of the 21st century global workplace.”School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, Upstate CIO Conference