Cloud.gov to give agencies a PaaS

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Cloud.gov to give agencies a PaaS

By Amanda Ziadeh as written on Gcn.com
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Agencies will soon have a faster and easier way to develop, run, and manage web applications without the complexity and cost of building and maintaining infrastructure.
Cloud.gov, a joint project of the U.S. Digital Services and the General Services Administration’s 18F agile development shop, will be a platform-as-a-service option that gives agencies an already-stable infrastructure and lessen the burden on IT departments.
According to Noah Kunin, 18F's director of delivery architecture and infrastructure services, the goal with this project was to “bureaucracy hack” a way to the cloud.
When agencies build a new system or implement new technology, they must comply with a long checklist of federal regulations, acts and schedules. Kunin, who discussed Cloud.gov at the Code for America Summit on Oct. 1, told the audience he found he had to read through 4,006 pages of regulatory guidance.
The lengthy development process also affects planning. “In order to create rational plans around technology, we have to have some idea of what our cycle time for our innovations are,” Kunin said. A minor release around new technology, Kunin calculated, would take six to 14 months. However, difficulties along the way with the checklist of compliances could heavily prolong delivery and cause delays.
To fix this process before shipping the final product, Kunin and his team created a new Cloud.gov back-end service. Launching “very soon,” according to Kunin, the platform is a pre-approved PaaS for government, built as a true production cloud that gives agencies a ready-to-use infrastructure upon which to build.
When Cloud.Gov debuts, Kunin said, agencies will not have to wait for approvals or juggle requests when creating applications. In the meantime, users can access Cloud.18F.gov to learn more, receive updates and explore the service’s capabilities.
Other projects that USDS and 18F announced at the summit include an improved, scalable login system for HealthCare.gov, a revamped electronic healthcare information network for the Department of Veterans Affairs, a replacement for VA's outdated Veterans Appeals Control and Locator System, and a preview of the Federal Election Commission's efforts to better consolidate and share campaign finance data online.

PTI has released the results of the State of City and County IT 2015: The IT Organization and Operations national survey

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PTI presents this executive summary that outlines the results of the State of City and County IT 2015: The IT Organization and Operations national survey.
In August, 2015 local government technology executives representing cities and counties of all sizes were asked to respond to the survey.

Highlights from the 2015 survey:

( Download the Survey Report )
Source: http://www.pti.org

Local IT budgets on the rise, but staffing concerns loom large

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Local IT budgets on the rise, but staffing concerns loom large

By Jonathan Lutton as written on Gcn.com
IT budgets are on the rise for many cities and counties, but technology executives in those local governments still have concerns about investment levels in certain key areas -- and in their ability to retain top talent.
Those trends are among the findings in a new survey by the Public Technology Institute and Deltek. Nearly 300 city and county IT executives were polled on their funding, organizational issues, staff and training needs, technology trends and relations with the vendor community.

Percentage of city/county IT leaders who expect budgets to increase
graph Local IT budgets on the rise, but staffing concerns loom large

When asked how top government leaders view IT spending, 63 percent of respondents said their bosses view IT budgets as an "investment for saving money in other business areas." And while more respondents (47 percent) expect their funding to remain the same than to increase (44 percent), just 9 percent were bracing for IT budget cuts.
Concerns remain, however, about funding levels for certain categories of IT investments -- and especially for in-house IT staff.

Percentage of who believe an IT category is inadequately funded.
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Levels of concern regarding loss of in-house IT staff over the next year.

 Answer Options Not Sure Very Low  Low Average High Very High
 Hiring away by private-sector  6%  15%  20%  23%  28%  8%
 Hiring away by public-sector  5%  15%  25%  31%  18%  6%
 Retirement of staff  9%  28%  15%  23%  15%  10%
 Staff quitting  5%  25%  31% 24% 10%  5%
 Eliminating positions due to budget cuts  7%  39%  28%  15% 7%  4%

 

Nearly three-quarters of executives responded that their budgets for staff development, training, travel and education will remain the same in the coming year. And more than 70 percent of respondents said they were either dissatisfied, very dissatisfied or unsure in their ability to attract and hire architects / system designers, security / risk assurance personnel as well as developers / programmers.
Source: http://gcn.com/articles/2015/09/18/snapshot-pti-concerns.aspx?s=gcntech_210915

WHITEPAPER: Microsoft CityNext solutions can help governments, businesses, and citizens shape the future. Read about tech trends that will enable what's next for cities.

Tech trends that will enable “what’s next” for cities

Microsoft CityNext puts a city’s people first, harnessing their ideas, energy, and expertise to create more sustainable and safer place to live, with access to citizen-centric services and quality healthcare and education. Microsoft CityNext solutions, alliances and programs can help governments, businesses, and citizens shape the future of their regions, cities and municipalities. Microsoft is uniquely equipped to enable this approach. No other company offers as broad a portfolio of secure, consumer-to-business software, devices, and services; as diverse a network of global partners to implement it all; and as extensive a history of successful education and social programs. In combination, all of this helps cities imagine and realize what’s next for their people.
While many cities are already well on their way toward modernizing their technology infrastructures, they will continue to face growing challenges as migration trends rise and citizen demands for public safety and other services increase. Microsoft CityNext is the bridge to help them meet these challenges in a phased approach, now and into the future.
Working together, Microsoft and our partners can provide cities with highly integrated solutions that will focus the most important technology trends — cloud, Big Data, mobile, and social — on their most pressing issues.

Microsoft Azure Government Becomes First Major Gov Cloud to Achieve FedRAMP JAB P-ATO

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Microsoft Azure Government Becomes First Major Gov Cloud to Achieve FedRAMP JAB P-ATO

By Susie Adams as written on Microsoft.com
This week, Microsoft announced new compliance milestones for Azure Government which included a number of key security safeguards, from FedRAMP JAB P-ATO to Microsoft contractually committing to meeting HIPAA requirements in Azure Government (by offering a Business Associates Agreement (BAA) to supporting compliance with IRS 1075 safeguards for processing accessing federal tax information in the cloud.
All of these are important – for governments of all sizes. And each of these on their own are significant milestones in the lifetime of Azure Government, which has only been generally available to customer since last December. It shows Microsoft’s commitment to recognizing the security and compliance standards that are important to our customers and to driving towards alignment with each of them.
I’d like to focus on one that is particularly notable in the Federal space, namely the FedRAMP JAB P-ATO, confirmed by FedRAMP this month as approved for use by all U.S. government agencies. This achievement is particularly significant as Azure Government is the first major government cloud platform to receive a FedRAMP JAB P-ATO for its Iaas and PaaS solutions. This is essentially the “gold seal” of approval on security controls for our Azure Government platform. JAB approval means that our solution had to pass muster with the JAB board consisting of approvals from GSA, DHS, and DoD technical reviewers.
This announcement comes on the heels of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) granting a FedRAMP ATO for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Government cloud. Together, these important milestones build on Microsoft’s commitment to providing the most complete and trusted cloud environment to its customers.
It also rounds out our Gov cloud with Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online Government. The JAB and Agency approved cloud workloads and partner solutions ready to go NOW is unmatched in the Federal industry. In fact, Microsoft is the only major cloud vendor that offers a hybrid cloud solution that is designed to support the rigorous compliance and security demands of government, healthcare, public safety and defense agencies.
Microsoft Azure Government is a government-community cloud that offers hyper-scale compute, storage, networking, and identity management services, with world-class security. A physical and network-isolated instance of Microsoft Azure, operated by screened U.S. persons, Azure Government enables new forms of cross-agency collaboration and rich cloud service integration. Learn more.
The Azure Government 90 day trial includes $500 per month to spend on all Azure Government services. This is a non-renewable, fixed term free trial agreement. Customers and partners who wish to continue to use Azure Government after 90 days must have a Volume Licensing agreement in place.

Azure-Govt-Trial

 

Managed Solution partners with IT staff to offer consulting and government solutions to improve IT infrastructure to reflect the latest technology.

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Metrics That Matter: How Does Technology Affect Government Outcomes?

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Metrics That Matter: How Does Technology Affect Government Outcomes?

CIOs need to develop better ways to measure the impact of technology.
By Kevin C. Desouza as written on Govtech.com.
There's little doubt that government's already substantial investment in information technology is going to continue to grow as public agencies look for ways to streamline processes, engage with citizens and achieve social outcomes. Chief information officers are going to be required to show not only that IT funds are being expended effectively but also that these resources are driving outcomes that government and the public care about. Consider this question: If you were to invest $1 in a parks program and $1 in the IT department, which would provide a greater return?
Questions like that are going to take on even more importance with the emergence of new technologies (think about drones and self-driving cars), new platforms (consider bitcoin and the future of digital currency), and new tools (such as predictive analytics and the emerging field of algorithmic regulation).
Over the last six months, I have interviewed more than two dozen CIOs and other IT executives across all levels of government on the state of IT metrics for performance management in the public sector. The findings from these interviews are summarized in a new report published by the IBM Center for the Business of Government.
In the report, I offer three overarching recommendations to help CIOs begin to develop meaningful metrics for their organizations or to improve the ones they already use:
As technology continues to develop, the level of IT innovation will become even more of a key differentiator among governments, particularly across local jurisdictions striving to streamline operations and create sustainable neighborhoods and resilient communities. A key question that will be asked of CIOs is how their investments in technology measure up. Clearly they are going to need to be able to answer that question.
This article was originally published by Governing.
Managed Solution partners with IT staff to offer consulting and government solutions to improve IT infrastructure to reflect the latest technology.

Long Beach (Calif.) Evolves its IT Workforce, Platforms and Focus

Long Beach (Calif.) Evolves its IT Workforce, Platforms and Focus

Millennial workers without tech backgrounds and coding on their phones -- this isn't your father's IT shop.
By Steve Towns as written on Govtech.com.
With baby boomers gradually leaving the government IT workforce, public agencies are scrambling to attract a new generation of employees. Long Beach, Calif., CIO Bryan Sastokas says he’s working to attract millennial employees by adopting open source and cloud-based platforms, and emphasizing community-focused initiatives. Sastokas also is hiring more employees who lack traditional IT backgrounds, and the result of that, he says, is a shift toward agile, business-centric solutions. Sastokas talked about his department’s workforce evolution in an interview during Government Technology’s Los Angeles Digital Government Summit earlier this week.
Managed Solution is the premier provider of IT support services and technology recommendations for the government sector. For more information on government specific solutions contact Managed Solution at 800-550-3795 or fill out the contact form.

Local and regional governments can win $50K in #AWS credits - enter the City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge

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City on a Cloud

AWS simplifies IT workloads that governments struggle with every day, making it easier to deploy and manage the technology our customers depend on, such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Content Management Systems (CMS), Open Data portals, and more. All of these applications run on AWS and make it easier for governments to deliver their services.
Through their City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge, we recognize local and regional governments are hubs of innovation, driving technology solutions to help improve citizens' lives. Visit our map of the "City on a Cloud" to learn what cities can do with cloud computing or see the solutions deployed by last year's winners here.

City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge 2015

Local and regional governments are innovating quickly to respond to the needs of their citizens. From transportation to planning to utilities, governments are using cloud computing to transform the way they interact with citizens and think about their future.
If you are a local or regional government leader or a technology partner who has deployed an innovative solution to solve a government challenge, we want to hear about it in the Best Practices or Partners in Innovation Award Categories. Or, if you have a great idea that you'd like to implement in your city, we encourage you to submit it in the Dream Big Award Category.

Learn more and submit your entry here.