The National Institute of Standards and Technology released the first two volumes of its cloud computing roadmap for public comment.
The publication, U.S. Government Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap, Release 1.0, is designed to foster the federal government’s adoption of cloud computing, support the private sector, improve the information available to decision makers and facilitate development of cloud computing.
The draft publication defines high-priority requirements for standards, official guidance and technology developments that need to be met in order for agencies to accelerate their migration of existing IT systems to the cloud computing model. Public comment will be open until December 2.
The document aims to provide a general understanding and overview of the roadmap initiative, including:
- prioritize interoperability, portability and security requirements that must be met to further government cloud adoption;
- standards, guidelines and technology that must be in place to satisfy these requirements; and
- a list of Priority Action Plans (PAPs) recommended for voluntary self tasking by the cloud stakeholder community to support standards, guidelines and technology development
“A key contribution of the roadmap effort is to focus the discussion to achieve a clear understanding between the government and private sector, particularly on the specific technical steps (standards, guidance and technology solutions) needed to move federal IT from its current early-cloud state to a cloud-based foundation, as envisioned in the U.S. Federal Cloud Computing Strategy,” said NIST Senior Advisor for Cloud Computing Dawn Leaf.
NIST developed the roadmap through an interagency and industry collaboration process that included three public workshops over the past year and a half.
The roadmap has undergone a 60-day review exercise through the Federal Cloud Computing Standards and Technology Working Group. This NIST-led group was formed in July 2011 under the CIO Council and includes representatives from approximately 30 government agencies.
The roadmap document is intended for a diverse audience including those with key roles identified in the Federal Cloud Computing Strategy and academia, government, industry and standards development organizations interested in cloud computing.
