By Michael Biddick
Cloud computing has the potential to transform how government agencies tap into IT services, and open source is an underlying technology in several of the early government clouds that have been developed.
We have yet to see the federal government issue a position on open source clouds, but it’s clear that agencies have a green light to move ahead with open source and cloud computing. It’s only a matter of time before these two trends come together in the form of open source clouds.
A challenge for government agencies is determining how one cloud can work with other clouds and IT systems to provide the same secure, robust infrastructure that exists with traditional IT environments. Here’s where agencies may turn to open source, which has the advantage of “openness,” providing flexibility, interoperability, and the potential for customization without the risks of vendor lock-in.
