The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform says it's concerned about government lack of standards for security, interoperability and data portability around cloud computing.

Committee Chiarman Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) and government management, organization and procurement subcommittee chairwoman Diane Watson (D-Calif.) pressed the General Services Administration in a June 8 letter on governmentwide cloud transition efforts.

"There are a number of questions and concerns about the federal government's use of cloud computing. The Committee is examining these issues and intends to hold a hearing on the potential benefits and risks of moving federal IT into the cloud," Towns and Watson said in the letter, addressed to GSA Chief Information Officer Casey Coleman.

For example, last month GSA released a "Cloud Computing Initiative Vision and Strategy Document" (.ppt). Is that the finalized plan for government-wide implementation, the committee members want to know. The requested information is due to the Committee by June 18.

The Obama Administration has made cloud computing a top information technology priority. In September 2009 the White House created the Federal Cloud Computing Initiative for this purpose.

"In the public sector, one of the interesting areas that we're pushing very hard on is a shift towards cloud computing without compromising national security or the privacy of the American people," said Federal CIO Vivek Kundra at a June 8 event at the Brookings Institute. "We're making investments across the board, whether it's with Health and Human Services and electronic health records, or its NASA looking at scientific computation or at Department of Interior with simple things like email."

For more:
- here's the House committee press release
- here's the letter to Casey Coleman (.pdf)

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