We are excited to announce the launch of Technically Speaking, DLT’s new podcast series dedicated to providing IT information to our public sector customers in an easy, listen-as-you-go format. TS will cover a variety of topics ranging from government IT initiatives to new products and solutions to any other topics that YOU would like to see discussed.

After months of researching, writing, and editing, the DLT Cloud Advisory Group recently completed its new reference eBook, Cloud Computing for Govies™!

We are approaching the end of national “Cyber Security Awareness Month,” so let’s take a look at some top cybersecurity tips we should all adhere to:

“It's not the loud pronouncements by hacking groups or the highly visible denial-of-service attacks that scare cybersecurity experts. It's silence,” claims a recent Federal Times article. The article “Programs aim to get the word out when cyber attacks occur” brings light to the idea that one of the greatest tools against cyber attackers is the “relatively low-tech approach of sharing information about attacks.” The article continues on about a push for disclosure, explaining that the DoD has put forth ideas for a new Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) rule. The proposed DFARS rule would require contractors to provide “adequate security”, report cyber incidents within 72 hours, and review their networks to search for additional attack information. As always, the issue of cost tops the concerns about this communication technique. Not only would there be increased costs for the companies providing the “adequate security”, but government resources would have to be tapped in order to provide data analysis and enforcement of any resulting mandates.

A recent New York Times article spells out the issues around federal cloud computing adoption explaining “such high praise for new Internet technologies may be common in Silicon Valley, but it is rare in the federal government, where concerns about security are paramount”. Agencies are notably concerned about losing responsibility for managing and securing data as well as the possibility of cloud outages. However, there are agencies with fewer concerns about security breaches and they have been busy moving user accounts and email services to the cloud environment. For example, the Agriculture Department has already moved about 46,000 employee accounts and is in the process of adding another 120,000. NASA has also made the migration by launching their own internal Nebula cloud computing platform. This platform provides a range of services powerful enough to manage all of NASA’s large-scale scientific data sets.

It is already the second half of August and we are quickly approaching a busy conference time for DLT. Up-coming events will take DLT all over the country, but some of the best are local ones happening just down the road. The annual Innovation Nation Forum, hosted by MeriTalk, will take place Tuesday, August 23 at the Washington Convention Center. Aiming to “Shake IT Up,” Innovation Nation will focus on three Federal IT hot topics- cloud computing, cybersecurity and data center consolidation.

I believe cloud computing will become the default IT delivery model for public sector organizations within the next five years. Some may think that this conclusion is “stating the obvious” while others may doubt the ability of public sector organizations to embrace a new way of delivering IT services during the worst recession in decades. In fact, budget constraints will not stop the trend towards cloud computing – rather, the current financial difficulties in the public sector will accelerate the inevitable adoption of cloud computing. Technology innovations and financial drivers have aligned to push IT organizations rapidly towards a cloud computing model. I see cloud computing as the next logical step in the steady evolution of the distributed IT service model. Cloud computing is neither radical nor new – we can see that the precursors of cloud computing were put in place over the last decade.

The Symantec Government Symposium 2010 is here! The year’s event is packed full with great keynote speakers, breakout sessions, and more. The event is held every year at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, and features the best and brightest in the Symantec community. With the federal IT community as the main audience, the Symposium features great topics and discussion that makes the Federal IT customer so unique. This year is no different, with topics ranging from “the Cloud” to IT Consolidation.

DLT provides value in many different ways, not only to our customers, but to our vendor partners as well. I’ve been working with one key DLT vendor for several years and a variety of others for a few years. The one thing I can tell you from my experience is that there isn’t one answer to the question, ‘what does it take to keep our great vendor relationships?’ First of all, DLT works with many vendors. There are several groups that we provide value to in each of those vendor partners. You have to keep all of them happy – the VP’s, managers, account reps, outside reps, inside reps, marketing reps, accounting, legal, operations and the renewal team. This is not an easy thing to do. It’s a balancing act and we have to do our best to make sure nothing falls.

In my last blog, I talked about how U.S.