Cloud Ventures

The Canadian Federal Government recently announced plans to create a single IT department ‘Shared Services’ that will save $100-200m a year through consolidation-driven efficiencies. As highlighted in this fact sheet there is lots of ‘low hanging fruit’ for cost savings due to a spread of many different email systems, networks and data-centres. This expensive complexity doesn’t stop there, it also continues into their enterprise application estate. Like most large organizations Governments are organized hierarchically, with different departments for each of their main functions, like Education, Welfare, Tourism and so on, and the head of each department, the Deputy Minister, is directly responsible for the privacy and security controls of the information they process. This means that typically each operates as a ringfenced ‘fiefdom’, because the simplest and most a... (more)

Cloud 2.0 Applications

Although Cloud Computing represents a shift from fixed cost, on-premise software model to a utility, online pricing alternative, it’s also the nature of software engineering itself and how that is delivered that is changing, and it’s this combination that offers the biggest value to IT consumers. The Cloud Application Platform Central to this strategy is the concept of the Cloud Application Platform, like the VMware offering among others. ‘DevOps’ represents the merging of the two worlds, enabling a more agile, modular approach to building software solutions for clients. For ex... (more)

Shared Service Cloud Centres: Canada’s Campaign to Cut Waste

The Canadian Federal Government recently announced plans to create a single IT department ‘Shared Services’ that will save $100-200m a year through consolidation-driven efficiencies. As highlighted in this fact sheet there is lots of ‘low hanging fruit’ for cost savings due to a spread of many different email systems, networks and data-centres. Huge cost savings will be achieved through standardizing on single systems for functions like email, and by reducing the number of data-centres from over 300 to less than 20. Cloud computing will be the technology that’s key to the success... (more)

New white paper : Government Community Cloud

Following recent posts about the Canadian Federal Government’s recent Shared Services initiative (this one and this one) we’re going to be publishing a full white paper on the topic, called ‘Government Community Cloud’. This will explain the central role that Cloud Computing, specifically the NIST model called a Community Cloud, can play in achieving the goals set out by this program. Quite simply it’s an ideal tool for doing so because fundamentally it’s a method of achieving shared services, it’s literally a technology model for many organizations to consolidate and share IT ... (more)

OpenRFP.net - Linkedin for Government Contracts

Every new venture needs a quick and easy-to-understand "elevator pitch", so what is it for OpenRFP.net. Well as the title suggests, in a nutshell the idea behind OpenRFP.net is that it's "Linkedin for Government contracts". The site uses social media to offer the same kind of features as Linkedin, the popular portal for business professionals, such as the ability to post your biography profile, you can join and create specialist topic groups and so forth. The difference is that where Linkedin is for general business networking OpenRFP.net is directed towards a specific goal - Hel... (more)