NASA launched apps@NASA, a site for agency employees and contractors to download mobile applications that securely access NASA systems to help users perform critical job functions, Chief Information Officer Linda Cureton announced on her blog this morning.
“apps@NASA is a first small step for the mankind that work at NASA into a daunting world where customer expectations are measured in hours or minutes and not in 18-month software develop lifecycles,” Cureton said.
The NASA Enterprise Applications Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. is providing the site. The center helps NASA improve businesses processes and deploy enabling technology needed to implement the agency’s strategic plan, Cureton said.
From Cureton:
Even though apps@NASA is only available to NASA employees and contractors (don’t you wish you worked at NASA?), the use of internal apps stores has a broad interest. There’s a lot of debate in the IT community relative to the use of mobile devices in the workplace in general. Whether or not IT providers are ready or not, mobile devices both enterprise-issued and personally-owned are in the workplace. This service advances us a bit further beyond debate and into the world where IT service providers must enter – a world where the driving force of technology and customer expectations advance faster than policy and procurement cycles and the restraining force of security and legal issues like e-Discovery and records management keep our feet firmly grounded in reality.
