SDFM The Business of Defense
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Members of the CHCO council, the National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations and the Federal Managers Association will talk about how to improve performance management. July 20, 2012
July 20, 2012 -
The General Services Administration is examining new ways to acquire cloud computing services for federal agencies. Among the possibilities, according to a request for information the agency issued recently, is the concept of cloud brokers. GSA is asking industry for input on the potential of setting up independent organizations that would manage the use, performance and delivery of cloud services. They could also negotiate relationships between cloud providers and cloud consumers. GSA's planning an industry day on the cloud broker concept for August 2.
July 20, 2012 -
Mr. Klimavicz is responsible for implementing statutory requirements regarding the acquisition, management, and use of NOAA's information and information technology resources.
July 19, 2012 -
United States and Pakistan intelligence officials are resetting high-level counterterrorism duscussions later this month. Pakistan's spy chief set to visit Washington. The talks and the relationship broke down over a deadly border incident last year. Among the issues to be discussed --CIA drone strikes. Pakistani officials want to replace the CIA drones with Pakistani F-16 strikes, and eventually its own armed drone fleet - something U.S. officials are not keen on.
July 18, 2012 -
U.S. Navy gunners aboard a refueling ship opened fire on a small boat racing toward them in broad daylight Monday near the Gulf city of Dubai, killing one person and injuring three. The Associated Press reports, "the rare shooting not far from approaches to the Strait of Hormuz comes at a period of heightened tensions between the United States and nearby Iran."
July 17, 2012 -
A federal judge sentenced an Uzbek man living illegally in the United States to nearly 16 years in prison on Friday on terrorism and weapons charges stemming from his plot to kill President Barack Obama. Reuters reports, Ulugbek Kodirov, who arrived in the United States in 2009 to attend medical school but never enrolled, had plotted to shoot Obama while the President campaigned for re-election this year, according to federal authorities in Alabama.
July 16, 2012 -
Mr. Werfel is responsible coordinating OMB's efforts to initiate government-wide improvements in all areas of financial management.
July 13, 2012 -
The Defense Department has released its first strategy for cloud computing. The plan calls for a departmentwide cloud architecture, but it will be delivered by multiple cloud providers. The Defense Information Systems Agency will serve as DoD's cloud broker. It'll be in charge of continuing to develop DoD's private cloud, but coordinate the delivery of cloud services provided by commercial companies. DoD also plans to lean heavily on the new FedRAMP program, the federal government's new process for certifying that commercial cloud products are secure.
July 13, 2012 -
Lawyers for an ex-Marine from Virginia facing 25 years in prison for firing shots at the Pentagon, the Marine Corps museum in Quantico and other targets in 2010 now say their client is mentally ill. According to the Associated Press, the Associated Press is reporting Yonathan Melaku (meh-LAH-koo) of Alexandria pleaded guilty earlier this year to a series of overnight shootings at various military buildings in northern Virginia. No one was injured. In the plea deal, he agreed to a 25-year sentence. In court papers filed Wednesday in federal court in Alexandria, Melaku's new lawyers ask for a court-ordered mental examination.
July 12, 2012 -
How is the government using big data currently?
July 11, 2012 -
The Pentagon says it plans to establish a searchable database of military valor awards and medals. According to the Associated Press, the decision announced Tuesday by Pentagon press secretary George Little stems from a June 28 Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a law making it a crime to lie about receiving the Medal of Honor and other prized military awards. The idea of establishing a database is to make it easier to check on award claims, and perhaps to deter those who would make false claims. Little said details of how the database would be established have yet to be worked out. He said the hope is to include valor awards and medals going as far back in history as possible.
July 11, 2012 -
President Vladimir Putin said on Monday the West's influence was waning as its economy declines but warned Russian diplomats to be on their guard against a backlash from Moscow's former Cold War enemies. Reuters reports, that Putin, in a biennial speech to Russian ambassadors, also poked at the West by condemning any unilateral actions to solve international disputes and underlined the importance of resolving such conflicts through the United Nations.
July 10, 2012 -
Chris Schoppmeyer, vice president for Agency Affairs at the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association will talk about legislation pending in Congress that affects members of his organization. July 6, 2012
July 06, 2012 -
The Environmental Protection Agency wants to move most of its IT enterprise to a cloud environment. The EPA's national computing center is in the process of building a secure hybrid cloud, and it's just awarded a three-year, $15 million contract to build hosting and virtualization services. The award was made under the General Services Administration's Infrastructure as a Service blanket purchase agreement. EPA wants to move 80 percent of its computing environment to the cloud by 2015.
July 06, 2012 -
Richard Boly is a career U.S. diplomat and currently the Director of the Office of eDiplomacy, an applied technology think tank for the U.S. Department of State.
July 05, 2012