IT is currently facing two dilemmas. The first is many want their private cloud architecture to work with their existing data center. Secondly, IT professionals are looking to build private clouds that are open to other clouds but also equipped to run existing in-house systems and applications. So you may be asking yourself, “Why should I build a private cloud?”

The GovDefenders Cybersecurity Event is now on-demand! Register and gain access to eight educational sessions, two keynotes, a panel, and over 100 cybersecurity resources from the world's top IT providers - for free.

John Nicholson is the President of the Washington D.C. Metro Chapter of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and one of the keynote speakers during this year's GovDefenders Cybersecurity Virtual Event. In preparation for the big event, we briefly interviewed John about cloud computing. Watch the below video to learn: "What resources can the Federal cloud community tap into regarding contracting and best practices?" and "How can cloud providers leverage the CSA's Cloud Controls Matrix and are there any currently leveraging it?"

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Top Threats Working Group today released, The Notorious Nine: Cloud Computing Top Threats in 2013 - a revised report aimed to provide organizations with up-to-date, expert-informed understanding of cloud security threats in order to make educated risk-management decisions regarding cloud adoption strategies. Today's review: Data Breaches.

A while back, I took the folks over at RackSpace to task for spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) concerning Cloud APIs. Luckily for all involved they simmered down on the subject (which most likely had nothing to do with my little article), and now the OpenStack project that RackSpace incubated doesn't look like the Chicken Little of the open source software world anymore. However, just like that game of whack-a-mole, we've got another FUD top-ten hit ripping through the charts: Data Portability & Cloud Lock-in.

One common misconception is that by moving applications – or IT Services – to the cloud, one somehow absolves oneself from properly managing that platform and application. Cloud platforms do not make 40+ years of institutional IT knowledge and learnings suddenly obsolete. In Symantec’s recent State of Cloud Survey, many traditional core IT disciplines were highlighted as being problem areas for cloud adopters. Ironically, many of the issues cited, like rogue IT and backup complexity, are commonly encountered with on-premise IT, so it’s no surprise to see these issues replicated on cloud platforms.

Having AWS on GSA is just the first step. While it’s now very easy to procure AWS, there’s still a lot of educating we need to do to explain how these services should be procured.

Today, many public sector organizations are facing rising operating costs, but decreasing budgets and high operational growth are overburdening legacy systems. With consumer IT creating demand for familiar e-mail and collaboration technology for the workplace, IT Directors are facing a difficult 2013. How do they satisfy operational needs and lower costs, while satisfying the demands of their coworkers?

One of DLT Cloud Advisory Group’s (CAG’s) mandates is to remain focused on the emerging threat landscape within cloud computing. The CAG proactively engages with the public sector community interested in cloud computing. We also actively contribute to forge standards through our participation in various Standards Development Organizations (SDOs).

When mandated to consider cloud computing and the commitment of migrating a minimum number of applications to the cloud, many Federal agencies selected email as their first choice.