In an opinion piece published Aug. 30 in the New York Times, former Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra takes on the "I.T. cartel" for encouraging federal "reliance on inefficient software and hardware that is expensive to acquire and to maintain."

He goes on to say that cloud computing has the potential to reduce costs, naming Amazon and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) as examples of cloud providers, "as well as companies like salesforce.com, which helps businesses manage customer relationships via social networks."

He goes on to note that "in preparation for the 2010 census, the Census Bureau used the cloud computing services of salesforce.com to expand its I.T. capabilities, saving the cost and time of purchasing, designing and installing a brand-new I.T. infrastructure."

Perhaps coincidentally, Kundra is due to speak Aug. 31 at a salesforce.com event in San Francisco. A public relations representative for salesforce.com said the company paid his travel expenses but is not giving Kundra a speaker's fee.