TechAmerica founds new cloud computing commission for federal use

Recently, President Barack Obama outlined the federal budget for 2012, which cited an increased adoption of cloud computing by several federal agencies. As this initiative will develop during the next several years, IT trade association TechAmerica is doing all it can to help out.

Officials from the company recently announced their nonprofit wing, the TechAmerica Foundation, will be overseeing the creation of a new panel of industry experts that will aid the agencies' adoption of the managed IT service. This panel will make recommendations to federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra as well as the commerce secretary. In addition, the panel will issue advice on how government bodies should deploy their cloud technologies, as well as which policies to institute to drive the cloud initiatives.

Among those joining the panel thus far include the CEOs of Salesforce.com and VCE, a professor of internet studies at Georgetown University, the president of CSC's North American public sector and a high-ranking Microsoft official.

According to Kundra, of the government's $80 billion spent on IT, $20 million will be focused on cloud computing. Thus, the creation of this commission will be helpful for the government during the adoption and implementation period.