Last month, I had the chance to moderate a panel at the second annual MeriTalk Data Center Brainstorm at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., speaking with the Department of the Interior (DOI), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on the data center consolidation journey.  We talked about ...

To quote one of my favorite thinkers, @ChuckHollis, who tweeted recently “IT needs to get good at marketing, as they’re competing with Service Providers who do it.”  As a tech marketer, I couldn’t agree more.   If Government IT departments don’t learn how to market their services, they will most assuredly go out of business. ...

Anyone who makes their living in Public Sector IT knows the tech industry runs on buzz words. Take “Cloud”, for example. How many times have you read or written that word in the past 24 months?  For me, I’d have to say > 1,000! (Note to self: Make some time for pleasure reading!) Kidding aside, ...

It’s difficult to go anywhere today without a CCTV camera picking up your movement and storing these images for the future. Advancements in DNA and positive identification are such that crimes committed over 30 years ago are being solved as technology provides the means to identify the previously anonymous. Across the US and the diverse ...

Just like I did for FISMA, I wanted to review the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program Security Controls (FedRAMP), and provide you with my view of it. As stated on GSA’s website, FedRAMP is “a government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. ...

As I think about the future of Cloud computing, EMC’s tightly integrated solutions with VMware have created a great operational strategy for leveraging advanced management, monitoring and charge back products. EMC’s “Journey to the Cloud” has three unique phases:  1. The initial build out of utilizing virtualization, creating flexibility and elasticity within an IT infrastructure. ...

Last week, I was invited to co-present on a webcast hosted by Federal Computer Week entitled “The Keys to Successfully Transforming Your Data Center .”  We discussed strategies to improve the utilization, efficiency, and ROI of existing data center hardware and software. Federal agencies large and small are definitely feeling the heat to comply with Federal ...

I recently returned from Draper, Utah, where EMC celebrated the grand opening of our newest global customer support center. We hosted customers and partners, and were joined by Utah Governor Gary Herbert, whose administration worked with us to help make the decision to locate in the Beehive State – recently recognized by Forbes, Fortune, and ...

There is a glut of blogs, articles and ‘consultant’ reports, which in one way or another put a twist on the Cloud computing argument, the risks, the costs and whether or not it saves money. Certainly each is looking for its own angle and in their own way each has something to say. We’ll get ...

Participating in a public cloud means that there are two independent parties involved. When two parties are involved, a relationship is formed. And just as it happens with any kind of relationship – each party has their own expectations. If they don’t get met – feelings might get hurt. Arguments and frustrations are normal, and ...