NIST: We’re from the government and we’re here to help

Is cloud computing ready for government work? Not yet, but a new U.S. Government Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap draft sets out action items that government IT gurus say will speed the adoption of safe and secure cloud implementations suitable for government use.

While popular among consumers who love their Google Apps, Facebook, and Dropbox, cloud computing still gets a bad rap from some IT buyers who see security problems emanating from the shared infrastructure that underlies the cloud model. There’s also a lack of consistent terms and service level agreements (SLAs) that large government agencies (or any large enterprises, for that matter) want before investing heavily in moving IT from on-premise deployments to the cloud. The draft released this week from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), working with the U.S. Federal CIO Council and others, aims “to make it substantially easier to buy, sell, interconnect and use cloud environments in the government,” NIST Director Pat Gallagher said. ”The roadmap will serve as our action plan, and we expect it not only to drive federal standards efforts, but because our needs are not unique in government, we think it will help the private sector as well.”