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Making Federal IT Reforms Easier Said Than Done July 10, 2012 Good customer relations management involves a two-way process -- making sure that customers are consulted as well as targeted. In fact, it is far more likely that a vendor will hit the target if consumer input is part of the marketing process. Two recent surveys have taken the measure of the ultimate federal agency information technology consumer: the chief information officer and IT operations personnel.

Feds Spark Boomlet for Risk Assessment Vendors July 03, 2012 The U.S. government's push to utilize cloud-based technology will eventually lead to some blockbuster contracts -- many well over $10 million and others for even more than $100 million. Consider that just one contract in the current batch -- a cloud deal for email services at the U.S. Interior Department -- carries a price tag of $35-million.

Feds' IT Report Card: Good Effort but Incomplete June 19, 2012 In the heyday of harvesting forests in the U.S., lumberjacks often used dynamite to break up clusters of timber that formed when thousands of logs were floated on rivers to market. In the last 18 months, the U.S. government has floated hundreds of pages of proposals into a river of policy "reforms," dealing with innovative information technology.

$20B GWAC Advances Federal IT Reform Goals June 12, 2012 The U.S. government is determined to find new and better ways of using information technology. As part of that effort, different approaches to IT contracting are in the offing for vendors providing hardware, software, consulting and other services, including social media and mobile device solutions.

Federal IT Services: Learning to Share June 06, 2012 It starts in kindergarten. Three playground swings and 15 kids. The teacher introduces the concept of sharing the swings by limiting the time per child. Fast-forward 30 years and those same children are hugging their IT servers and programs and clinging to "their" silo stash of legacy equipment and software.

U.S. Gov Teams With Private Sector to Bust Up Botnets June 04, 2012 Botnets represent a major security threat to e-commerce. The effectiveness of this malicious software has gone far beyond the realm of simple annoyance and inconvenience to a major global, technical and economic challenge. The botnet security issue has become so difficult that federal agencies and the private sector have initiated a special effort to deal with the problem.

New Venture Firms See Major Opps in Federal IT Market May 23, 2012 U.S. government agencies are looking everywhere they can to cut costs -- including the cost of information technology. Tight budgets will be the dominating factor in federal IT procurement over the next several years -- at least. Yet in the face of budget discipline -- and even slightly projected declines in spending -- two venture capital companies see great promise in the federal IT market.

Federal Cloud Adoption, Part 2: Raining Contracts May 16, 2012 The U.S. government's pursuit of cloud-based technology has been characterized by a blizzard of policies, directives, technical studies, proposed contract vehicles and conferences. The federal "cloud first" initiative, requiring agencies to give priority consideration to cloud solutions for IT operations, began in December 2012. Now, an idea of how much business is at stake for IT vendors has surfaced -- and it's impressive.

Federal Cloud Adoption, Part 1: Lots of Baby Steps May 15, 2012 The U.S. government is learning quickly that achieving the next big thing in information technology depends upon implementing a huge number of little things. For federal IT managers, that big thing is the cloud. Federal agencies have busily pursued cloud solutions since December 2010, when the government adopted its "Cloud First" policy, requiring agencies to give priority consideration to cloud technologies.

Federal IT Managers Get New Tools for Hammering Out Innovations May 02, 2012 E-Commerce buzz words sound great in theory, but innovation often founders on the shoals of "getting there from here" as IT managers slog through the details of converting to new systems and programs. Federal agencies have been turning to shared services, data consolidation, commodity IT and, especially, the cloud. Directives to reform IT have been flying out of the OMB at regular intervals for the past 18 months.

Salesforce.com Reaches for Bigger Slice of Government Cloud Pie April 25, 2012 Salesforce.com has unveiled a new series of cloud computing initiatives for the government user base -- a highly lucrative niche for tech vendors, especially those that can present their products in a budget-friendly light. The new offerings, bundled under the name "Government Cloud," include a dedicated, multitenant instance of Salesforce.com's cloud infrastructure, a new AppExchange for the Government, and a Salesforce Government Partner Accelerator Program.

Tech Industry Coalition Seeks More Government Transparency April 24, 2012 President Obama initiated an Open Government program on his second day in office, pledging to make government information more accessible to the public. Three years later, that program has achieved significant success in many forums. However, the effort of making more federal information even more accessible is a continuing one that seems to get more challenging every year.

US Agency Takes 'Private' Approach to Streamlining IT Procurement April 14, 2012 Information technology vendors seeking business from the federal government are well advised to keep an eye on the requirements of big agencies such as the Department of Justice or the Department of Homeland Security. Within big departments, there are big components -- such as the Food and Drug Administration or the Bureau of the Census.

Vendors Must Deal With More Federal 'Commodity' IT Purchasing April 10, 2012 Federal agencies will be moving significant portions of their annual IT spending to "commodity" type procurement vehicles by the end of 2012. As part of continuing reforms in IT acquisition and management, the White House Office of Management and Budget has directed agencies to immediately begin the process of consolidating IT procurement, with a focus on shared service arrangements.

Federal Agencies Struggle With Protecting IT Supply Chain April 03, 2012 Managers of information technology systems in both the private and public sectors have had their hands full dealing with security breaches that come from hackers invading IT systems. Increasingly, however, IT systems are becoming vulnerable from another channel -- the actual supply chain sources of both hardware equipment and software programs. Federal agencies are just as vulnerable as commercial enterprises to supply chain security breaches.

Telework Growth Spurt Drives Feds' Hunger for Mobile Tech March 27, 2012 The market for mobile information technology will grow sharply in the next few years as employers increasingly embrace both "at home" telework solutions and the use of other remote access capabilities, including smartphones and tablets. In a February forecast on mobile data traffic, Cisco Systems predicted that such traffic will grow at a compound annual rate of 74 percent in the U.S. between 2011 and 2016.

Federal Telework Initiative Not Quite There Yet March 20, 2012 The notion that the U.S. government workforce is a huge, deskbound bureaucracy is the typical stereotype, but that vision is only part true. The federal workforce is huge, and it may be well be bureaucratic -- but federal workers are not always deskbound. Many federal jobs require mobility. Agricultural and industrial inspectors, Border Patrol agents, tax and financial examiners come to mind.

The Cloud Computing Paradigm Shift Is Bigger Than IT March 13, 2012 Information technology leaders in the U.S. government have been promoting cloud technologies for more than a year. In December 2010, the federal chief information officer launched an IT reform plan that required agencies to start adopting cloud technologies. At the time, some agencies had already implemented cloud solutions, and since then many others have initiated cloud programs.

Feds to Keep IT Revenue Stream Flowing March 06, 2012 Vendors can at least count on one big customer to provide a steady stream of revenue for the next year or two: the U.S. government. Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel has been promoting the idea that when it comes to IT, the federal government must "do more with less." But the Obama administration's budget for 2013 basically proposes that federal agencies do more with the same.

Google Hires Headliner to Direct Government Relations February 28, 2012 Google has hired veteran lobbyist and former member of Congress Susan Molinari to represent the company. Molinari served as a Republican member of the House of Representatives from New York between 1990 and 1997. Since then, she has represented major businesses as a lobbyist. Molinari, who will be based in Washington, D.C., will become Vice President of Public Policy and Government Relations for the Americas.