NIST Helps Push Gov't Into the Cloud

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The big cost advantage, Badger said, is that when the computing capacity is idle, the government wouldn't be paying for it. Even an idle computer can cost money, as the servers and infrastructure use electricity, and have to be maintained.

NASA is already working with a cloud computing system, called Nebula. It's used for images, and allows the agency to make them available without buying and housing a completely new set of servers. Its Ames Research Center is currently looking at how to put some more computationally intensive tasks on a cloud-based system. NASA has its own computers, but they can be expensive to run and upgrade.

NIST spokesperson Evelyn Brown said the government is also trying to streamline the certification process. Currently, a government agency might decide to contract out some part of a system to a cloud computing service. But then another agency has to duplicate a lot of the paperwork -- even if it wants to use the same service. 

Instead, there's an effort to use what the first agency has filed already."You can build on what's accepted and employed already, and not start from zero," Brown said.

NIST is currently focused on two major cloud computing efforts. One is leading a collaborative technical initiative called the Standards Acceleration to Jumpstart Adoption of Cloud Computing (SAJACC) that is intended to validate and communicate interim cloud computing specifications, before they become formal standards.

The major requirements the specifications will address are security, the ability to move data and the ability of different systems to work together seamlessly.

NIST researchers are working with other agencies and standards development organizations to identify ways users interact with cloud systems such as sending data to a cloud service provider's environment, and later retrieving it and removing it. The NIST approach will help to identify gaps in cloud computing standards and focus on those gaps. SAJACC researchers plan to create a portal to collect and share the information.

Badger added that part of the testing is looking at how people actually use the systems in place, to find out which ones can be most effectively moved to the cloud.

Another major challenge with cloud computing is to safeguard government data, especially citizens' private information. Agencies using cloud computing will still use NIST-developed Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) guidelines.