As more agencies consider moving to the cloud, a popular first step is to migrate desktop and productivity applications, said a panel of cloud experts June 15 during a Washington, D.C., event called the Government IT Leadership Forum.

Rosio Alvarez, chief information officer of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said her organization has begun using Google App Engine. Early laboratory adopters began using the mail application last fall but in a few months all employees will be useit, she said. The next transition will be the move to Google Calendar. Alvarez said her team surveyed users after the transition. "We're getting about 80 percent of people saying Google Apps, specifically Google Mail is better than what we were using," she said.

General Services Administration's Cloud Computing Initiative lists email in the cloud as one of it's four areas of focus, said Katie Lewin, director of Cloud Computing Programs at GSA. The initiative is for GSA only and not for offer as a service ot other agencies, he added. GSA released an request for proposals June 14 to replace its current e-mail and collaboration environment with cloud services.

Defense Information Systems Agency will pilot a cloud-based office productivity suite, said DISA CIO Henry Sienkiewicz. The goal, he said, is for the military community to be able to collaborate and develop applications as needed in the environment it is facing.

"DISA's traditional charter has not been at the desktop level," said Sienkiewicz. "This is not to say that we are changing the position, what we're doing at this time is trying a prototype of an application."

Lewin said the efforts of early adopters can help lay the groundwork for other agencies' cloud-computing plans. She said on June 16, her cloud computing working group would be meeting to set baseline requirements for GSA, which could lead to optional requirements for other agencies.

For more:
- see the GSA RFP here

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