Cloud Moves for IBM Target Civilian Government, Defense – Plus the 7 Gov Stories

On GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER:

• The 2013 shooting at the Navy Yard. The 2010 attack on the IRS building in Texas. The September 11th attacks. All of these disasters took place on federal property. Work should be safe. It’s that simple. But federal buildings are often the target of attacks. So how can government do a better job of protecting not just its physical space, but the people too? We talk to the Government Accountability Office.

The SEVEN stories that impact your life

1. NextGov: Cloud Moves for IBM Target Civilian Government, Defense- “IBM has announced two new cloud data centers for federal customers featuring the Softlayer infrastructure and ecosystem it purchased last year.”

2. Governemnt Executive: Pentagon Ranks Top Suppliers to Spark Competition Among Contractors- “The Defense Department’s acquisition chief on Friday released a ranking of the top 30 supplier units within the contracting industry as part of a continuing effort to improve the government’s largest procurement operations by curbing costs and professionalizing the workforce.”

3. FCW: Agencies want more guidance on digital strategy- “Federal IT and human resource managers are looking to agency leaders for better guidance in implementing the goals of the Office of Management and Budget’s Digital Government Strategy and the Telework Enhancement Act, says a new study from the Mobile Work Exchange.

4. Federal News Radio: FCC examining reasons for Internet traffic jams- “The Federal Communications Commission is setting out to unravel the mystery behind the Internet traffic jams bogging down the delivery of Netflix videos and other online content. The inquiry announced Friday by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will dissect the routes that video and other data travel to reach Internet service providers such as Comcast and Verizon.”

5. Defense News: Pentagon To Create ‘Technology Offsets,’ Encourage R&D Spending- “Newly installed US Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work has launched a major push to encourage industry to invest in capabilities the Pentagon believes will give it the edge on the battlefield, Pentagon sources said. Work has already started sharing his vision for what he is calling “technology offsets” both inside the Pentagon and in meetings with defense industry executives. He is expected to articulate his vision in the coming weeks and months, sources said.”

6. FCW: Pentagon, Congress seek to avoid acquisition ‘Groundhog Day’- “Defense officials and acquisition experts speak of an emerging consensus on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon and in the defense industrial base on what acquisition reform entails. But the easiest things for all to agree on are that reform will take years and past efforts have fallen short.”

7. Federal News Radio: Senate bill doubles spending on veterans’ health- “Spending on veterans’ health care could double in three years under the Senate’s solution to the long waits experienced by thousands seeking medical care at VA hospitals and clinics, according to congressional budget experts. Analyzing a bill the Senate passed overwhelmingly last Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the measure would add $35 billion over the next three years to the $44 billion the government now spends annually on medical care for veterans.”

DorobekINSIDER water-cooler fodder… yes, we’re trying to help you make your water-cooler time better too…

• Harvard’s Kennedy School Prof. Steve Kelman in FCW: A story that makes federal IT look good A recent issue of Bloomberg Business Week had a cover story on problems at IBM. The story as a whole was an interesting one, but what caught my eye, and the reason I discuss it here, was the story’s lead off, which featured the contest between IBM and Amazon for the big CIA cloud computing contract. (A story, incidentally, that was first broken by FCW.) Basically, the first three paragraphs of the BusinessWeek story were filled with praise and recognition for federal IT.

• A Key Ingredient for Creating Start-Ups: Young People [The Federal Reserve Board via Harvard Business Review] The presence of young workers appears to be necessary for the creation and growth of new firms, particularly in industries where young people have key technical skills, say Paige Ouimet of the University of North Carolina and Rebecca Zarutskie of the Federal Reserve Board. For example, in the electronics industry, a 5% increase in the share of youth in the population leads to a 1-to-2-percentage-point increase in the rate of new-firm creation, according to the researchers’ analysis of U.S. Census data.

• Silicon Valley Tries to Remake the Idea Machine [The New York Times Magazine] Hoping to invent the future, the tech industry is looking to recreate its past.