Cloud Computing and Virtualization 2011

As Federal agencies are defining functions, applications, and systems that can move to hosted environments, the General Services Administration (GSA) has been working closely with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) to help agencies identify trusted cloud services and certified service providers. Further, the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) often used to procure cloud hosting support can be as varied and complex as the agencies themselves. Individual organizations may not have the contractual or technical expertise to evaluate the SLAs proposed. To enable a more rapid migration to cloud-based services, GSA has emerged as a cloud-savvy government resource focused on helping agencies expedite their cloud computing.

Attendees will learn:

• GSA is creating cross-agency cloud-specific Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) for Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) and E-mail as a Service (EaaS) offerings.
• To sort out fact from myth about cloud computing implementation.
• Agencies can leverage the expertise of GSA, OMB, and NIST to ensure the cloud services procured match their expectations and operational requirements.
• To move systems “intelligently and securely” to the cloud