Portal to aid in development of standards is coming soon

 

Connecting state and local government leaders

Given the amount of work and collaboration that goes into the creation of standards, the National Institute of Standards and Technology cannot give a specific time frame for the availability of cloud standards.

A portal to facilitate collaborative development of standards to support cloud computing requirements is on schedule to be ready by the end of the year, said Dawn Leaf, senior executive for cloud computing at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

However, she told an audience at a Brookings Institution event in Washington, D.C, that due to the amount of work and collaboration required to develop standards, NIST can't promise a completion date for the standards.

The Standards Acceleration to Jumpstart Adoption of Cloud Computing is a strategy and a process that will become the portal. The standards NIST needs to develop will deal with interoperability, portability and security issues related to cloud computing, she said in her presentation, delivered July 21.

The goal of SAJACC -- introduced in May at the NIST Cloud Computing Summit -- is to address the issue of supporting the implementation of complex technology during the period when standards are needed but not yet developed, and to speed up the development of the standards, she said.

Leaf joined a panel discussion with government officials from the General Services Administration and the Federal Trade Commission at the event titled “Moving to the Cloud: How the Public Sector Can Leverage the Power of Cloud Computing,” held at the Brookings Institution headquarters in Washington, D.C. Darrell West, vice president and director of Governance Studies and director of the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings, moderated the panel. West also released a report, “Steps to Improve Cloud Computing in the Public Sector,” at the event.


Related coverage:

11 ways to boost cloud adoption in government

NIST portal could get cloud standards to fly


Leaf made it clear that NIST does not develop standards but helps facilitate the process within industry and academia.

“It is impossible to identify at the top level all the standards that are required. Standards are only effective if they address real-life problems, Leaf said. “That is the whole point of the scenario of SAJACC.”

She estimated that standards can only address about 20 percent of the top interoperability, portability and security issues. "Maybe we put 80 percent effort in and address 20 percent of the areas and get tremendous payback from that,” she said.

Another area that slows down the standard process is that experts from different areas such as telecommunications or privacy and security, for instance, have their own focus.

That’s why we can’t give a specific time frame,” Leaf said. NIST has identified a set of 25 requirements based on operational scenarios that will address the greatest portion of interoperability, portability and security issues. NIST will make those available to stakeholders in the SAJACC portal, which is coming out at the end of the year.

Meanwhile, David McClure, associate administrator of GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, said agencies are starting to put public-facing data into the cloud already. Data.gov and Recovery.gov are examples.

Moving to the cloud does not mean that agencies relinquish control of their data to third parties or service providers, he said, referring to a pervasive fear among many agency leaders about cloud computing.

Agencies still have to go through the process of privacy assessment, data categorization schemas of whether the information is sensitive, proprietary or related to national security before posting something to a publicly accessible cloud, McClure said.

“The Open Government Directive is not about relinquishing control of agency information and turning over data to a third party that determines access and use,” McClure added.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.