First Thoughts…

Last week's Architecture Plus Seminar was an excellent discussion between Federal IT professionals and private industry. There is a lot of exciting news and developments with regard to Federal EA, and I, for one, think the future looks optimistic. It was great to hear Dr. Scott Bernard, on behalf of OMB, provide a cohesive and forward-looking vision for EA in the Federal government and what he/OMB envisions for its use. I think this new vision will go a long way toward helping the U.S government identify and take the necessary (and perhaps painful) steps to improve mission performance, avoid duplication, cost overruns, and make smarter business/investment decisions that improve the services delivered to U.S. citizens. I am excited about the potential that architecture can play in this process. I realize that many in Federal IT have had high expectations of EA in the past, only to be unmet, but this time around I believe EA is better-positioned to make a major business/mission impact...

Much fanfare has been made recently about the Federal government's Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI). At this point, I think everyone can agree on a few fundamental notions that are almost certain not to change with regard to data center consolidation and cloud computing. First, the Federal government is going full steam ahead into the practice of cloud computing. Vivek Kundra, among many others, has made very clear that the future of IT in government resides in cloud-based operating models. Second, is the idea that the Federal government urgently wants to reduce its data center footprint. With close to 2,100 data centers currently in use it is no surprise that the government wants to reduce the costs and complexities associated with IT operations and management through the notion of shared resources, pooling, and realizing increased computing efficiencies through coordinated consolidation. While the Federal government's push to be proactive in identifying a future direction for IT is commendable,...

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act calls for an unprecedented level of spending on a variety of programs, projects, and initiatives across the country. Ensuring the timely delivery of funds to those in need while limiting fraud, waste, and abuse presents both a challenge to those managing the effort, and opportunity to increase the transparency of government spending.

In support of this transparency effort, a number of sites have emerged that are dedicated to tracking stimulus project spending and helping people visualize, analyze and understand how stimulus funding is being allocated.  Although these sites represent great steps in the right direction, none provide a robust geospatial mapping component, which can help make understanding and interpreting the vast array of stimulus data easier.

To illustrate some of the ways recovery spending can be visualized, we leveraged data from StimulusWatch.org to create a series of geospatial mashups using Microsoft's Virtual Earth.

"I have no idea what anyone is talking about," – Larry Ellison, CEO Oracle Corp. talking about cloud computing, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal's article The Internet Industry Is on a Cloud -- Whatever That May Mean

Mr. Ellison is not alone. It's quite possible that if you ask 10 experts what they think cloud computing is you may get 10 answers. Even if nobody knows what cloud computing really is, one thing is certain: if internet searches are any indication of interest and uptake, this year will be a big year for cloud computing. A quick search on Google Trends reveals that just this year, the volume of searches for "cloud computing" began to overtake searches for the more mainstream topics like "virtualization".

So what's all the buzz about? Is cloud-computing revolutionary, or