States, Localities Need to Adopt Cloud, but Gingerly, Says California’s Tech Secretary
SILICON VALLEY -- Strapped state and local governments must move to the cloud for economies, but “with a lot of trepidation and very carefully,” said California Technology Secretary Carlos Ramos Thursday. Constituents “don’t trust government” but it requires them to entrust it “with critical and sensitive information,” and security “really is a big challenge, especially in government,” he said at an event to release a cloud-adoption report by a TechAmerica Foundation work group. The State & Local Government Cloud Commission includes representatives of AT&T, Google, Microsoft and Verizon.
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"Since cloud consumers must trust their data to the cloud provider, data governance is key to any cloud purchase,” the report says. “This broad and evolving discipline ensures that only the right users have the right access to the right data. Private clouds minimize data governance concerns, but still must assure proper access. Community clouds that follow a common data governance structure mitigate data security and multi-tenancy issues. Public clouds are less controlled, and governments tend to use them only for non-sensitive data."
California uses Amazon.com and Google services, but only for information that isn’t sensitive and personally identifiable, such as data about stimulus grants, Ramos said. Touchier information, such as about child-abuse cases, stays “in-house,” he said.
State and local attention to cloud technology has advanced dramatically in the past year, said David Cohn, the study group’s chairman and the director of IBM’s Smarter Cloud program. The theme has moved from “why should we” to “how should we,” then “when should we” and now “when will we,” he said. For some governments in Illinois, the answer is now, said Greg Wass, Cook County’s chief information officer. Next month, the state, the county and their largest city, Chicago, will announce a joint platform for cloud information services, he said. The goal is to recruit all the cities in the county, Wass said. Over several years, the county will move functions such as employee time and attendance records, enterprise resource planning and health services to the cloud, he said.
Adapting procurement systems to cloud services is another big challenge, the report says. “Classic government procurement vehicles for ICT are generally ill-suited to cloud computing,” it says. “They've been used, but can be slow and must add conditions on portability, security, privacy and service levels. Cloud-specific procurement vehicles have also been developed, typically for services shared by multiple departments. Cross-government consortia and the federal government are beginning to help states and localities more easily purchase cloud solutions through new procurement vehicles."
Commission members said the report was kept short and simple for non-technologists. But Ramos said efforts need to go further. “I don’t think policymakers are still going to read it and be able to relate to it,” he said. Information about cloud adoption should be tied in to substantive issues that governments confront, Ramos said. “The next step to really bring this home” is to relate the technology directly to dealing with matters such as healthcare, transportation and pension overhauls, he said.