More information on the Who’s Who on adapting to the Cloud….

In looking on news on Cloud based systems this week, I found this headline and link in Washington Technology. 

“Get to know cloud computing's advantages”

Budget constraints drive efficiency  by Karen D. Schwartz

In the article, Karen states that the government must now look into Cloud based systems and if an agency or department chooses not to use a Cloud based system, they must justify that decision.

Take a look at this article at http://washingtontechnology.com/microsites/2011/cloud-computing-download/get-to-know-cloud-computing-savings-types.aspx.

Printed beside this article are several smaller pieces such as “Cloud security remains a legitimate, though overhyped, concern” and “Cloud computing can generate massive savings for agencies.”  This idea would certainly be worth looking into for many business as well.

Then this article arrived inbox. 

5/19/2011

·         DHS cancels $450M financial system modernization, considers cloud instead

The Homeland Security Department cancels its second attempt at modernizing its financial systems. What is its new plan?

Take a look at the entire article at

http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/05/17/dhs-cancels-tasc-financial-modernization-considers-cloud-instead.aspx (or press CTRL + click on the article name)

I was interested in the fact that ‘”Housing the system solution in the DHS enterprise data center is no longer a requirement.”’  The article also quotes Chris Ortman, a spokesman for DHS (in a May 16e-mail) as saying ‘”With advances in IT security, DHS security architecture now expressly supports external services as an extension of the trusted internal environment.  Thus, a cloud-based or shared services solution could meet the Department’s need”’  This article states that DHS is looking for Cloud based solutions for financial, asset and management systems.

I attended a seminar this week expressly felt the exact opposite.  Perhaps ‘beefing-up’ our internal security is the first order of business. 

Newest MYTHBUSTERS from I-BN (I-Business Network)

Myth:  You can recover data from a failing hard drive by putting

                   it in the freezer for a few hours and then reinstalling it in

                   the computer.

True or False?

 

Answer?

True - While this won't fix what is wrong, it can get your mechanical hard

                  drive working long enough for your to recover important data.   

                  Freezing the hard drive cools and shrinks the metal so the drive

                  will mount properly and run long enough for you to copy your

                  files to another source.

When I read this question, I thought of the many times in the old DOS days when I would put backup floppy disks in the freezer before attempting a restore.  Clients thought it was a miracle!

See you next week.