Ever since the Office of Management and Budget’s cloud-first mandate in 2011, there’s been a gold rush of sorts.

Like the 49ers of yesteryear, agencies and vendors alike saw the potential in this sparkling new, game-changing substance.

But after that initial rush, agency chief information officers and cloud service providers saw there was a lot more work to strike it rich with the cloud than just a few apps like email or storage.

Now five years later, the cloud is everywhere. As of September 2014, the last time the GAO reported on cloud usage across government, agencies said they were using 101 instances of cloud and spending rising to more than $529 million.

In 2016, the number of cloud instances and the amount of money spent on platform, infrastructure and software-as-a-service undoubtedly is ever-increasing.

The market research firm Deltek said agencies were expected to spend more than $2 billion on cloud computing in 2015, up from $1.58 billion in 2014.

Despite this fast adoption, agencies continue to face several challenges, ranging from acquisition to security to having the right workforce to manage these services.

The acquisition challenge is among the biggest, moving to a pay-by-the-drink or consumption model. This is a whole new world in many regards for agencies when buying IT services because the budget rules too often require agencies to identify where and how they will spend a project’s entire budget before they get started.

But as OMB says in its TechFAR handbook there are approved approaches. For instance, agencies can use firm fixed price type contracts for buying services, including agile or iterative development services. OMB says it’s not only allowed in the Federal Acquisition Regulations, but is done more often than most realize.

Agencies have access to better secure cloud services because of the FedRAMP program. But several agencies still need some reassurances that their data, especially sensitive data, is well-protected since they no longer can see the servers the data resides on.

And of course, there is the workforce challenge. Moving people from system administrators to cloud service project managers requires an entirely new set of skills.

Moderator

Jason Miller, Federal News Radio

Jason Miller is an executive editor and reporter with Federal News Radio. As executive editor, Jason helps direct the news coverage of the station and works with reporters to ensure a broad range of coverage of federal technology, procurement, finance and human resource news.As a reporter, Jason focuses mainly on technology and procurement issues, including cybersecurity, e-government and acquisition policies and programs.

Panelists

Mark Schwartz, Chief Information Officer, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Mark Schwartz is the chief information officer of USCIS. One of his key goals is to increase the organization’s responsiveness to mission needs by reducing time from concept to deployment for new capabilities. To support this goal, Schwartz has introduced such practices as Agile and Lean Development, Continuous Delivery and DevOps. He also leads efforts across DHS to introduce Agile information technology approaches.

In 2015, Schwartz received the AFFIRM award for Leadership in Technology Innovation and an Amazon Elite 100 award. Before this position, Schwartz was the CIO of Intrax Cultural Exchange, where his innovative Family Room application drove dramatic market share, revenue and profit growth. In 2006, CIO Magazine recognized this accomplishment with a CIO 100 award. In 2010, he was named one of the Premier 100 IT Leaders by Computerworld Magazine.

Schwartz holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Yale University, a Master of Arts in Philosophy from Yale University, and an Master of Business Administration from Wharton.

Todd Simpson, Chief Information Officer, U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Mr. Simpson is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Washington, DC. In this role, Mr. Simpson is responsible for providing information technology services and support to approximately 20,000 federal personnel and contractors that comprise the FDA community throughout the continental United States and internationally.

Marlon Andrews, Deputy Chief Information Officer, National Archives and Records Administration

Mr. Andrews as Deputy CIO of NARA works to maintain world class technology operations for internal and external customers, oversee information security, integrate Cloud-based service solutions, and reduce costs.  Marlon provides strategic oversight of NARA’s nationwide technology infrastructure, and in the absence of the CIO, will manage the day-to-day functions of Information Services.  Mr. Andrews will also work to develop policy, upgrade current technology and implement mobile solutions.

Rob Davies, Executive Vice President of Operations, ViON Corporation

Mr. Rob Davies is ViON’s Executive Vice President of Operations responsible for ViON’s Solution Development, Cloud and Infrastructure-as-a-Services offerings, Professional Services, Managed Services, and Support Services.  Mr. Davies has 25 years of experience supporting Federal and commercial business in information technology.  Prior to ViON, Mr. Davies served as Vice President of U.S. Public Sector Services for CA Technologies, as well as Chief Executive Officer and President at Base Technologies.  Mr. Davies earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Michigan and his Master of Arts in International Affairs from the American University. He was recognized as a GOVstar SmartCEO awardee in the mid-size business category in 2012

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