For federal agencies, the use of cloud technologies has always been easier to conceptualize than to execute. Success in cloud adoption starts with preparation of applications and data.

For example, agencies need to ensure that their authoritative or system-of-record applications are the ones that end up replicated in the cloud. They need to analyze their data for duplication and the existence of hidden cybersecurity threats before they move it.

To explore the issues of data management in the cloud, Federal News Radio convened a panel of industry and government practitioners. They were:

• Craig McCullough, Vice President for Commvault Federal Sales
• Dan Kasun, Senior Manager of Worldwide Public Sector at Amazon Web Services
• Frank Konieczny, Chief Technology Officer of the Air Force
• Greg Garcia, Chief Information Officer and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Garcia underscored the need to take care with applications, noting the Corps of Engineers “rationalized” its apps so only the ones that would most benefit from cloud hosting moved there. He noted the work the Corps does in disaster recovery, such as that going on now in Florida to Texas. Garcia said cloud hosting is key to information sharing with the public.

Konieczny said base- or squadron-specific apps generally stay locally hosted or in an Air Force data center, letting the IT staff concentrate on Air Force-wide applications for the cloud. He pointed out the Air Force added a chief data officer who is exploring cloud-based data as a service. He added, the Air Force already has two systems as cloud-hosted software-as-a-service, namely an enterprise resource planning and an employee productivity suite.

McCullough emphasized the need to have a complete inventory of your data assets. But more than that, he said deriving value from information stores requires full access and making data actionable – kept in cleansed and open formats.

Kasun pointed to a couple of federal trends in cloud. These include steady, but iterative cloud adoption, starting with the least-risk workloads and gradually moving up the risk ladder as agencies gain confidence. He cautioned against moving resources as-is, without first optimizing them for the cloud.

Moderator

Tom Temin, Federal News Radio

Tom Temin has been the host of the Federal Drive since 2006. Tom has been reporting on and providing insight to technology markets for more than 30 years.  Prior to joining Federal News Radio, Tom was a long-serving editor-in-chief of Government Computer News and Washington Technology magazines. Tom also contributes a regular column on government information technology.

Panelists

Frank Konieczny, Chief Technology Officer, U.S. Air Force

Frank Konieczny, a Senior Level executive, is the Chief Technology Officer, Office of Information Dominance and Chief Information Officer, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. He has primary responsibility to advance the technology landscape of the Air Force.  His current focus areas include the developing the technical target baseline, mobile enterprise solutions, data management, IdAM access/claims management, cyber and technology innovation pathfinders and advancing the Joint Information Environment.

Greg Garcia, Chief Information Officer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Greg Garcia has been the CIO of the Army Corps of Engineers since February 2016. In that role, he  is the principal advisor to the Corps Commanding General on information technology issues. He is responsible for all aspects of information resource management and information technology for the Corps. Before coming to USACE, Garcia was the executive director of the Army IT Agency for four years, and previously worked in a variety of civilian executive positions focusing on technology during his 34-year career in government.

Craig McCullough, Vice President, Commvault Federal Sales

Craig McCullough, Vice President Commvault Federal Sales, has over 15 years experience in working with the federal government. In his current role, he leads the overall business strategy, business development and partner engagement to drive the most customer value and outcomes.   He joined Commvault in April 2014 as the Director for U.S. Federal Civilian sector.

Prior to joining Commvault, Craig ran the Hewlett-Packard U.S. Federal Enterprise Server and Storage sector within the civilian sector and played a key role in building out HP’s Federal Networking department to develop the strategy and build the business.

As an instrument-rated, private pilot with over 700 hours as Pilot-in-Command, Craig is a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and serves as the  Maryland State Liaison for the Recreational Aviation Foundation, a non-profit, government-focused, aviation organization.  Within this role, Craig has testified before the U.S. Congress House Appropriation Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies on key issues impacting aviation safety within the U.S.

Craig has a law degree from University of Baltimore School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude.  He also holds a BS in Biology from Penn State.  Prior to joining the Federal IT Industry, Craig practiced as an attorney for a Washington, DC-based law firm, representing large corporate clients on matters of patent and copyright infringement and general business litigation.

Dan Kasun, Senior Manager, Worldwide Public Sector, Amazon Web Services

Dan Kasun is Sr. Manager for Amazon Web Services Worldwide Public Sector Partners.  His organization is responsible for building and supporting the AWS partner channel and ISV ecosystem for government, education, and non-profit customers in the United States.  This includes the establishment of programs for, and direct engagement with, system integrators, solution providers, independent software vendors and value added resellers.  The depth and breadth of this partner ecosystem is critical to enabling government and education customers to leverage AWS cloud solutions successfully.

Mr. Kasun is a technology industry veteran with over twenty years of experience working with organizations of all sizes, from small companies to large enterprises, in a variety of industries (Financial Services, Healthcare, Government, and Education) – and joined Amazon Web Services in September of 2014.  Prior to joining Amazon, he was with Microsoft Corporation for over 18 years, and he holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Lehigh University.

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