Aligning federal acquisition rules to better serve cloud services procurements “is a problem,†according to Steve Cooper, the Federal Aviation Administration‘s acting chief information officer.
He spoke on the issue at a recent AFCEA Bethesda event and added, “we do not have an answer yet,†according to a report in Federal Computer Week.
David McClure, associate administrator for the General Services Administration’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, said agencies need more expertise developing cloud service acquisition to become more comfortable with cloud computing.
“We are one step down that path,†McClure said. “It is a huge culture shift. The acquisition process is not designed to work extremely well in a service environment.â€
After President Obama encouraged the transition to cloud computing, federal agencies have been working to transition to cloud computing and managed services. Barry Brown, executive director of enterprise data management and engineering for Customs and Border Protection, said the current acquisition model is not any good for the cloud.
He said the challenge for government agencies to transition to the cloud would be retraining the information technology workforce to manage services.
