VIP Blogs

• Why Recreate the Wheel?

  

  One of the advantages of working in government is that we’re not only permitted, but encouraged to copy what works. If another team has grappled successfully with a problem similar to the one we’re facing, there are no proprietary barriers to learning from their experience—or even asking to re-use their work.

• The Trust Factor

  

  Making the right information available, to the right person, at the right time is critical to mission effectiveness and decision-making superiority.

• Virtualizing for Disaster Recovery and Continuity of Operations (DR/COOP)

  

  We’re all familiar with the savings that can be gained through IT virtualization in terms of reduced data center floor space, energy, and server maintenance costs. But the benefits of a virtual environment also extend to disaster recovery and continuity of operations (DR/COOP). Virtual environments make it easier and less costly to achieve rigorous recovery objectives.

• Operational Resiliency for Enterprise Services

  

  The efficiency and cost-advantages of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)-driven IT consolidation initiatives are clear. Why operate five centers of excellence, when one can serve the entire enterprise?

• Open Government and an Appeal to Vendors

  

  The laws that govern Federal procurement are carefully designed to be equitable to vendors, transparent to taxpayers, and auditable for mistakes or malfeasance.

• Thinking about an Open Source Electronic Health Record

  

  Thirty years ago, when clinicians at VA first started building the software components for a “high tech” electronic health record, they stood at the vanguard of patient-centered care.

• Facing Our Cyber Insecurities – How To Really Make a Difference

  

  NASA CIO Linda Cureton shares her views on cybersecurity and the role everyone plays in staying protected.

• Farewell to Facebook? A Federal Executive’s Dilemma

  

  Gary R. Galloway Deputy Director, Office of Information Assurance, U.S. Department of State, discusses his reasons for joining FaceBook in its early days and why now he is saying goodbye.

• Cloud Computing Comes of Age

  

  The federal government spends more than $75 billion annually on information technology. Due to its size and critical mission requirements, feds have often lagged behind the commercial sector in embracing new technologies. With cloud computing, however, the federal government is [...]

• Cloud Computing: Bull, Silver Bullet, or Silver Lining?

  

  I suppose you can’t have a Shoot Out about Cloud Computing without talking about Silver Bullets. So, bang, bang, here goes! There is a lot of discussion about Cloud Computing and it has become a very popular term. Because of [...]

• True Transparency and Naked Leadership

  

  There is much discussion about transparency in government especially as it relates to Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, twitter, and various social networking applications. Transparency in a literal sense simply means to be able to see right through something. [...]

• Gov 2.0: Getting Serious About Transforming Government

  

  There are a lot of people around who are beginning to transform government into something new that realizes the vision of the Founders. I’m trying to focus on the gist of what’s happening, bearing witness to their efforts, on their [...]