Moving to the Cloud. What’s the best approach for me?

Cloud computing offers organizations the opportunity to lower IT costs and increase agility. Adoption is increasing and many agencies are seeing the benefits, b...

Blue River Information Technology (BRIT) is a solutions provider that specializes in technology and services for designing, implementing, managing, securing and optimizing private, public and hybrid cloud data center infrastructures. The technology portfolio encompasses data management including storage and disaster recovery; consolidation & virtualization; IT infrastructure performance optimization; collaboration; and security. Managed, professional and engineering services are offered. Managed services include storage, disaster recovery, SharePoint and cloud based data centers. The company has extensive expertise in traditional and cloud infrastructures and provides professional services ranging from requirements analysis through to deployment – specializing in organizations moving from traditional to cloud-based infrastructures. Engineering services include integration, customization and development. Based in Herndon, VA, the company operates worldwide. NetApp creates innovative products—storage systems and software that help customers around the world store, manage, protect, and retain one of their most precious assets: their data. NetApp is currently the #1 storage provider to the U.S. Government. Discover our passion for helping organizations go further, faster at www.netapp.com.

Cloud computing offers organizations the opportunity to lower IT costs and increase agility. Adoption is increasing and many agencies are seeing the benefits, but for others, serious questions remain. How do they determine if they should make the move? Which cloud approach is best – public or private? Which applications and data should they move and what should remain in the data center? Is one type of cloud better for certain types of applications and data than another? How safe will the data be? How will it be managed? QUESTIONS:

  • What is your strategy now for use of clouds? Which applications or datasets are going where?
  • Describe your decision-making process for mission applications – or anything beyond e-mail – to move to the cloud. Who is involved?
  • Describe your mix of private and public cloud use.
  • Does hybrid figure into your thinking?
  • When using a mix of infrastructure types, how to you manage it all?
  • What services do you find lacking in public-infrastructure-as-a-service? Can they be augmented by in-house capabilities?

MODERATOR

Tom Temin is the host of Federal Drive weekdays from 6-9 a.m. on Federal News Radio 1500AM. Tom Temin has 30 years experience in journalism, mostly in technology markets. He was a long-serving editor-in-chief of Government Computer News and Washington Technology magazines, both of which were regular winners of national reporting awards. Before joining Federal News Radio, Tom wrote (and continues to write) a column on government IT and acquisition topics. He was a regular guest on Federal News Radio before joining the team.

GUEST BIOGRAPHIES

Sandra Kunz has been the Director for Production, Operations and Infrastructure in the Peace Corps’ Office of the CIO since December 2011. In this role, Kunz is responsible for managing a team of engineers and technicians who support the global infrastructure that Peace Corps staff worldwide depend upon every day. Prior to joining Peace Corps, Kunz worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for 21 years. While at USAID, she managed IT infrastructure operations and engineering teams globally. Kunz started her long career in government with the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, managing various IT projects.
Harry Lee has served as the Senior Computer Scientist for Infrastructure for the U.S. Census Bureau since May 2012.In his role, Lee is responsible for helping standardize, stabilize and optimize the IT Infrastructure for the Census Bureau in alignment with all federal directives, strategies, and policies. This includes IT Infrastructure for cloud computing, mobile computing, collaboration and unified communications, data management, security, and service management.
David McLaughlin founded Blue River Information Technology in 2008 and has successfully grown the company while maintaining his core principles of providing solutions that include leading technologies and high quality engineering, managed, and professional services. Under David’s leadership, these teams have gained the respect of technology vendors and customers for their skills and abilities, particularly with cloud, where David realized its potential early on in its life cycle and aligned the company accordingly. With his most recent project, David partnered closely with NetApp to develop an integrated data management platform for hybrid cloud environments.
Mary Jean Schmitt owns for NetApp’s Cloud strategy for US Public Sector – Federal Civilian. Within Mary Jean’s responsibilities, she drives strategic partnerships, program strategy and captures efforts for both on and off premise cloud initiatives within civilian agency customers. MJ represents NetApp US Public Sector industry working groups including Tech America’s Cloud Committee and Meritalk’s Cloud Caucus Advisory Group. Most recently, MJ contributed her thoughts on Cloud Data Portability within the NetApp Government Gurus blog. As an active user of social media, she can be followed on @maryjeanschmitt. Mary Jean is a 20+ veteran of the Federal IT industry holding various leadership positions focused on business development and program capture within civilian agencies. MJ has been part of the NetApp US Public Sector team for 6 years. Before NetApp, she held Business Development and Systems Engineering roles at Sun Microsystems.

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