By Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Microsoft Federal
In May, IDC released results of a cloud computing survey on server adoption that reported significant interest from IT leaders in private cloud options, and far less support for broad adoption of public cloud services. I often hear the same thing from federal leaders that are concerned about security but excited about the benefits of cloud – including scalability, cost-of-ownership savings, and efficiency. They want control of their data, but they want apps on-demand as well. DISA’s RACE is an interesting example of a private cloud program that offers computing resources to Defense organizations but operates solely only on the DoD's internal network. Agencies like the DoD that deal with sensitive information are looking for cloud solutions that still maintain and support their internal security practices, and some federal regulations demand that certain types of data be hosted within government-operated infrastructures.
It’s not hard to see why private cloud options are so attractive to federal agencies, but striking the balance between agility and security isn’t always easy. One solution that has a lot to offer in this department is Lockheed Martin’s Thundercloud. It’s a design pattern that combines on-premise hosting with applications on-demand (design patterns are tools that software developers use to create solutions in line with compliance factors and other best practices). Implementers use it to build solutions that keep federal agency data behind their firewall, but also allow access to computing, storage and application services via the cloud.
Agencies don’t have to adjust security, privacy and compliance processes because the data is still on-premise, but the scale and cost-savings are there because IT leaders are only using (and paying for) external resources when they need them.
There is a cool pilot program being planned for the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico that is being built using this technology. It’s an identity management tool designed to quickly identify and confirm athletes and other authorized personnel for entrance into event facilities. Digital photographs are submitted by approved event participants in advance of the event, and hosted on a database behind the event’s IT firewall. During the games, when an athlete attempts to gain access to an event location, security personnel will use a smartphone to take his or her photo. The participant’s photo and personal information will then be automatically compared with database records to confirm the identity. As anyone who’s organized a major event can tell you, security and efficiency are major challenges. The fact that solid authentication can be done quickly from a handheld device is an incredible innovation.
We learned about the cool things Lockheed was doing with private clouds because they used Windows Azure to develop the design pattern. We have a full blown case study up on our Web site, and it contains some great insight for agencies looking to host their own data while gaining the cost benefits of a consumption-based computing model.
I want to take a minute to recognize a really cool program called Code for America, which is designed to connect technology talent with local governments. Their goal is to get our nation’s best Web developers working on the challenge of delivering city services more efficiently and transparently. Code for America is also focused on increasing collaboration amongst local government and helping them to share innovative resources that benefit citizens across regions. In a post today on Microsoft’s On The Issues blog, my colleague Dan Kasun laid out our support for this important initiative and the need for “a strong base of developers who understand not only technology, but also government issues, infrastructure, organization, systems, and needs.” The same holds true for federal agencies dealing with the challenges of creating a more efficient and open government within budgetary guidelines. I’d love to hear form some folks in the federal space with innovative ideas on how to get more of our top developers working on challenges facing our federal government.
Right now Microsoft is working with Code for America by providing resources and architectural guidance for solutions being planned in Boston, Philadelphia, DC, Seattle, and Boulder. I can’t wait to hear more about the innovative apps that result!
Yesterday was the final day of WPC 2010 here in Washington, D.C., and the event reminded me of the enormous impact technology innovation can have during a challenged economy. When times are hard, both individuals and organizations naturally scale back wherever they can, but technology is one of the few investments that actually helps to cut costs. The technology sector certainly took a hit during the economic downturn, but Forrester predicts 8% growth for the U.S. IT market in 2010. That’s a testament to the emerging importance of IT and its ability to drive efficiencies when budgets are tight.
“Doing more with less” was a major theme that kept coming up in discussions with partners at WPC. Customers across the board are looking for ways to drive down costs and streamline processes, which is why organizations across all markets are taking a serious look at options like cloud computing. Technology innovation in areas like cloud has the power to reinvigorate our economy through local investment in R&D, increased productivity and job creation.
According to IDC, the IT market will create nearly 13,000 new businesses between 2009 and 2013. That’s an incredible growth statistic. Microsoft has 150,000 partners in the U.S. alone that help to support, implement and customize our solutions to meet specific needs in the communities they serve. The majority of these partners are locally-owned small businesses that earn $8.70 for every $1.00 that Microsoft earns. Not only does that success help companies and governments within their communities become more efficient, but it creates more highly-skilled, well paying jobs in the areas they serve. That economic growth is vitally important as we collectively work to recover from the recession.
We have over 6,000 partners in the DC/Virginia/Maryland area, and many of those organizations share our goal of helping the federal government meet its mission while getting the most value for our taxpayer dollars. They lead the development of cutting-edge technologies that not only help government, but keep our local economy strong. At WPC this week, it was great to hear similar stories happening all across the country through our amazing partners.
This year’s Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC 2010) is the best attended WPC ever, and as Steve Ballmer mentioned yesterday in his keynote, a lot of that excitement has to do with cloud computing. It’s a transformative time in the technology industry, with organizations looking to cloud solutions to cut costs, become more efficient, and engage customers or citizens in more dynamic ways. We’re working with partners at WPC to come up with the best strategies for implementing cloud technology so that our collective customer base has access to these benefits without sacrificing security.
The public sector has been leading the charge into the cloud, and it’s been great to watch government and education organizations embrace this innovation. We’ve already seen huge successes from major cloud implementations at the University of Arizona, NASA, the Kentucky School System and the City of Miami. In the Federal world, the Obama administration has made cloud adoption a top priority from the start, and we’ve been working closely with our Federal partners to deliver on this vision. Two really cool recent federal cloud examples come to mind that I want to take a minute to highlight.
In October of last year, congress approved the Military and Overseas Voting Empowerment (MOVE) Act to ensure that our service men and women overseas have their political election votes counted. As anyone living overseas can tell you, the absentee voting process can be difficult due to things like notarization requirements, the availability of documents, and general information on rules and procedures. The goal of MOVE is to make this process simpler and more efficient, and the Department of Defense and the Federal Voting Assistance Program recently launched an online voting solution that streamlines the process. LiveBallot is cloud-based system developed by two great Microsoft partners - Vexcel and Democracy Live - that allows U.S. citizens to securely register for absentee ballots, track their ballot’s progress and receive notification when their vote has been counted. It’s an extremely valuable cloud-based solution that provides some peace of mind for warfighters that don’t have the time to devote to a complex process. The solution runs Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud platform and is available to all citizens with an overseas Web connection. In fact, Kitsap County, WA has already implemented the technology for multiple elections and it’s received rave reviews!
Another Microsoft federal partner, Eskel Porter Consulting, has built an automated cloud solution that is transforming the process of public records requests. It’s called Public Records Tracker, it’s being used to manage Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. This solution really simplifies the process by creating an electronic record of each request that can be tracked and monitored for FOIA compliance. Citizen information requests are absolutely essential to the administration’s goals to increase transparency, public collaboration and overall accountability. We’re proud that this cloud-based solution leverages Microsoft Dynamics CRM to help federal personnel provide information to citizens faster and more efficiently.
These are just two examples of cloud implementations that are really improving the way our Federal Government operates!
This week is a very exciting one for DC-based Microsoft folks, as thousands of our partners from around the world are in town for the Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 (updates are being provided through the Twitter hashtag #wpc10). Microsoft partners are the unsung heroes of our business – customizing and implementing our technology solutions to meet unique customer needs. Cloud computing is changing the way our partners and customer do business, and this year’s WPC will focus on bringing the right cloud solutions to the organizations we serve. There will be keynote addresses from Steve Ballmer and President Bill Clinton among others, in addition to some great working sessions with partners devoted to solving government challenges. The event officially kicked off yesterday with over 800 Microsoft partners and staff participating in volunteer projects to support the local DC community.
I was at Nationals Park for Microsoft’s A Salute to Our Troops program, a partnership with the Metropolitan Washington, DC USO designed to give back to the men and women in the armed forces that have served our country. In the morning we stuffed over 5,000 back-to-school backpacks for children of DC-area military families, and then we honored over 100 wounded warriors and their families at a special BBQ reception. Events were attended by General Peter W. Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff U.S. Army, Leon Harris, News Anchor of WJLA ABC 7, Miss Virginia Samantha Casey, and Matt Capps and Josh Willingham of the Nats! During the game, Nationals fans recognized the over 200 wounded warriors in attendance with a standing ovation, and everyone enjoyed a great afternoon of baseball. Below are some photos:
Wounded Warriors Being Honored at Nationals Park (photo by Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden)
Nats Closer Matt Capps Stuffs a Back-to-School Backpack for Children of DC Area Military Families
Miss Virginia Samantha Casey and the Nationals’ Josh Willingham pitch in at the USO Backpack Stuffing Party
General Peter W. Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Army talks with PFC Matt Castillo Del Muro
In addition to the game, Microsoft partners also volunteered at Bright Beginnings Child Development Center in Washington, D.C., a facility dedicated to providing childcare for families that are homeless. Everyone pitched in to upgrade classroom technology and help out with some painting and landscaping projects. The third event was held at the Washington Convention Center, where hundreds of colleagues put together over 500 disaster relief kits for international crises and over 1,000 literacy kits for schools around the world. The whole day was amazing and I want to thank our partners for really stepping up and getting involved in some important causes that affect our region. Our partners are truly amazing!
Cybersecurity is one of the top challenges facing Federal leaders right now, and the stakes have never been higher. Government is taking advantage of the collaboration and efficiency benefits that emerging Web technologies have enabled, and it means that our IT infrastructure is more critical to ensuring national security and maintaining economic stability than ever before. Federal agencies are obviously a popular target for cyber-terrorism, and if we can’t keep data secure and essential services up and running, we won’t be able to take advantage of innovations like cloud computing.
Both the Administration and Congress recognize this, and have made cybersecurity a top priority. President Obama has declared that “America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity”, and U.S. Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt recently released an extremely important strategic document called the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) which outlines a plan for keeping Cyber transactions secure.
Potential legislation like the Lieberman/Collins bill aims for government-wide IT security mandates, and a holistic approach is absolutely necessary because government organizations are connected like never before. Reactive strategies by individual agencies won’t cut it. Cybersecurity is a continuous process that requires risk management methodologies implemented in advance of potential threats.
Federal leaders are focused on their most important assets, and the threats that those assets face from cybercriminals trying to interrupt critical service, or gain access to sensitive information. In our discussions with agency leaders, we focus on four key aspects of a continuous cybersecurity plan:
The Federal government must develop best practices around each of these areas, along with a strategy that clearly identifies the people that make security decisions, the processes used for risk-based decision making, and the technologies that support this mission. Cybersecurity is an ongoing process that requires trustworthy software and IT resources, user education, and improved regulatory standards – but it’s also only a means to an end. It’s vital because government organizations can only leverage technological innovation if they keep assets secure, empowering personnel to more efficiently achieve mission goals.
Some of my colleagues at Microsoft - Jon Wall, Chas Jeffries, Chris Vance and others – recently drafted a white paper on managing Cyber risk in today’s Federal IT environment. I really encourage all Federal leaders to give this a read as they are thinking about their cybersecurity strategies.
In government, productivity tools aren’t just resources that increase efficiencies - they are essential to missions like ensuring national security, maintaining economic stability and improving our democracy. Technology can be a force multiplier in support of our biggest government challenges, transforming communication and collaboration amongst teams. Government personnel need robust software tools that allow them to collect, analyze, and share data in the most efficient ways, and they need access to these tools from any location. Office 2010 was released this month, and our developers had these issues in mind when they were creating it.
Government has an increasingly mobile workforce. In addition to first responders and homeland security personnel that serve out in the field, agencies have adopted teleworking policies with staffs that work remotely. To help agencies navigate the challenges that come with a dispersed workforce, Office Web Apps provide online (“browser-based”) versions of tools like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This allows for editing, viewing and collaborating on documents while folks are away from their desks, from any location or device with access to the Internet.
Last week I posted about the importance of Unified Communications (UC) in homeland security operations, but every organization needs to maximize efficiencies in personnel interaction. Understanding “presence” is critical - knowing where colleagues are, if they are available, and how they’d prefer to communicate. We made sure that Office 2010 incorporated these essential UC tools that allow users to update their current status and communicate with colleagues in the way that makes the most sense at any given time.
Accessing voicemail information via Outlook
The links below provide additional information on the features that have been added to familiar tools like Outlook, as well as information on new applications like OneNote. I’ve talked a lot about the transformative nature of Gov 2.0, which is why I’m so excited to see Office 2010 tools integrating with social media applications like Facebook and LinkedIn. Our goal has always been to push the limits of productivity, and I can’t wait to see these applications in action on behalf of our government agencies.
Top 7 Reasons to Try Office - http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2010/jun10/06-15Top7Reasons.mspx
Interview with a Microsoft Office 2010 Beta customer - http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2010/06/15/real-scenarios-real-life.aspx
Making Connections with Microsoft Office 2010 Communicator (video) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8H3PNlAmDg
A Day in the Life Using Microsoft Office 2010 Outlook (video) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-Dy1GDNoqU
A Day in the Life Using Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps (video) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLMrvy72XVk
MITRE’s “Ahead in the Clouds” June question tackles continuity of operations (COOP) and failover in a cloud environment. These are issues we discuss often with federal leaders, and they rightly want to know that they will have access to critical information and applications during an event that disrupts normal service. COOP concepts don’t change when you move capabilities to the cloud, but a large virtualized environment does provide increased flexibility and more recovery resources at a lower cost. My answer below discusses these advantages in addition to some of the suggestions made by Microsoft’s Brad Smith on how legislation can help ensure that vendors are providing agencies with privacy, security and resiliency best practices.
MITRE’s “Ahead in the Clouds” Question for June: “In moving capabilities to the cloud, it will be important for Government/DoD organizations to have an understanding of continuity of operations, failover, and backup and recovery capabilities, with associated SLAs. Please describe the key elements of these capabilities and how you believe Government/DoD customers can verify them, and be contractually guaranteed of their effectiveness."
In a cloud environment, the principles of continuity of operations planning, failover and backup and recovery aren’t much different from a traditional IT infrastructure. The big difference is that the potential scale of cloud computing ensures computing resources are available to agencies when they need them.
Large cloud providers offer environments that are worldwide in scale, with the ability to handle and route massive amounts of data. The data centers are enormous, and when there is spillover, or if a data center experiences a service interruption, traffic is automatically transferred to another datacenter with availability. The best cloud-based systems are redundant by design, with standardized processes for dealing with unexpected or unusual computing patterns. Not only does this provide greater flexibility and resources, but it allows providers to be completely transparent about where data is being stored or relocated to.
In terms of backup and recovery, large cloud environments provide capabilities that protect both the physical equipment and the applications themselves. Applications are replicated and stored in multiple data centers, so that if one location experiences a problem, the application can be accessed from a secondary data center. It’s failover on steroids, and it’s all because of scale. Major cloud providers build these capabilities from the ground up, and they add an incredible amount of resiliency to the entire operation.
Verifying these capabilities and ensuring effectiveness is a major issue not only for providers, but for legislators as well. Vendors have to be more accountable from a legal perspective – especially when protecting sensitive government data and applications. Citizens and organizations need guaranteed access to secure data, and cloud vendors must be transparent about documentation and controls. To make this a reality, the U.S. needs to adapt its communications technology laws to reflect the modern computing environment. Microsoft’s Brad Smith has called for the creation of a “Cloud Computing Advancement Act” to establish best practices and increase confidence in the privacy, security and resiliency of the cloud. Steps in the right direction include:
Industry, government and consumer groups must work together to create legislation that encourages innovation while demanding security and protecting privacy. In the meantime, it’s up to vendors to be completely transparent with government agencies about resiliency and continuity capabilities, and for agency IT leaders to demand adherence to industry best practices.
Kris Teutsch, who runs the National Security Group practice at Microsoft, recently contributed an article to the Journal of Homeland Security on the current Cyber threats we face, and it reminded me of how far we still need to go in terms of information sharing within our homeland security infrastructure. In addition to cloud security and modernizing our legacy enterprise systems, Kris touched on Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) and the importance of Unified Communications. Unified Communications (UC) is the integration of real-time communications tools like instant messaging and video conferencing with non real-time services like voicemail or email. It basically enables information sent via one technology to be received through another technology that is more convenient or efficient for the recipient at that time. UC provides users with information on where their coworkers are currently located (office, home, traveling) and what method of communication they prefer during a particular situation.
You can see why this type of system would be incredibly valuable during an emergency or disaster. As Kris states in his article, “UC…plays an important role in improving COOP by providing the interoperability and mobility to enable workers to easily connect with the right people and organizations regardless of location or platform.” Homeland security personnel need the ability to share information in real-time from remote locations, from a variety of mobile devices. UC effectively tailors communications for individual roles and functions within our national security agencies, ensuring that during a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, the right personnel are receiving the information they need to do their jobs effectively.
Emerging UC solutions are critical to homeland security and national defense operations, but they also serve civilian agencies and other private enterprises that are looking to increase efficiencies, reduce operating costs, and consolidate infrastructure. We use our UC tool internally at Microsoft, and it’s extremely useful to have a single resource that tracks all of my communication and collaboration with colleagues. You know where folks are and you know how best to reach them. It makes it incredible easy to bring teams together in real-time using audio or video conferencing, even when out of the office - and it’s all done securely. Advances in communications technology have provided us with so many options for connecting with one and other, and it can occasionally become overwhelming. Great UC platforms leverage the technology available to us but simplify it to the point where we can focus on getting work done.
In the federal world we talk a lot about challenges surrounding cloud adoption – namely how to ensure security and privacy. But a major advantage of cloud infrastructures that doesn’t get discussed enough is resiliency. This is especially true of large, public cloud environments that are accustomed to dealing with vast amounts of data. During an attack, these systems call upon virtualized resources to prevent data loss and keep systems up and running. The MITRE Cloud Computing Forum recently focused a question on the resiliency of public and private clouds, and there were some great responses form industry experts. I’ve pasted the question and my full response below.
Brian Shaw, DASN C4I/IO/Space, Director of Cyber Warfare asks: “How could a government system be more resilient to attack if hosted on a public cloud computing model vice a private one and what are the added vulnerabilities the government would need to consider?"
The great part about cloud computing is that government organizations have choice. Some data makes sense in the cloud and some data may not. It’s not an all or nothing discussion. Security and privacy are rightly the top concerns for most government leaders, and some are far more comfortable housing sensitive information on-premise. That’s OK. Agencies should move to the cloud as they’re ready, and when they do, they have both public and private options to choose from.
In terms of resiliency, public clouds are extremely robust. They offer scale in terms of underlying architecture that private cloud infrastructures typically don’t provide. The ability to move traffic and data throughout large (or multiple) data centers is a major advantage when it comes to performance, but it’s also an advantage in terms of resiliency to attack. Public cloud providers understand the inner workings of large data center environments – what data should be flowing, how it should be flowing, and when something doesn’t seem quite right. This experience and knowledge enables public cloud administrators to spot anomalies quickly, and take action against a threat when it’s required. Large public cloud offerings also allow application and data to be replicated and stored in other data center locations, ensuring critical information isn’t lost during a targeted attack.
The risk lies less in the “public vs. private” argument than in the fact that it’s a whole new approach to computing. Virtualized computing requires a different mindset, and it brings the potential for a whole new class of vulnerabilities. As cloud adoption increases additional threats may emerge, which is why government agencies need to be thoughtful about where their data is hosted. Hosting data on-premise doesn’t necessarily guarantee that it’s more secure, which is why rigorous security methodologies need to be implemented at the outset of development in any cloud environment. Adhering to the best IT security standards that exist today - like ISO 27001, FISMA, SAS 70 Type 1 and HIPPA - not only ensures the highest levels of data protection, but also increases transparency by providing government leaders with specifics on how it’s being protected.
Cloud is a major paradigm shift that government leaders are still wrapping their heads around. Data centers aren’t just a room with a bunch of servers anymore. Computing has become a utility - a virtualized infrastructure that scales in accordance with need. The balance lies in maximizing these incredible efficiencies with robust privacy and security controls in place.
I recently attended an interesting session at the Gov 2.0 Expo entitled “Open Source Spying: 2010” which detailed the current state of information sharing within the intelligence community. Microsoft’s own Lewis Shepherd (@lewisshepherd) was on the panel, joined by New York Times Magazine reporter Clive Own, Chris Rasmussen (U.S. Intelligence Community) and Matthew Burton (formerly of the Defense Intelligence Agency). Back in 2006 Clive wrote a story on how the technology limitations within the U.S. intelligence community were hindering the exchange of crucial data, featuring Matthew’s experience at DNI in 2003. Matthew was accustomed to using real-time social media technologies like wikis, blogs and instant messaging in professional communications, but found that very few of those tools were being used within the Intel community, and when they were connections were typically siloed by individual agency – NSA, CIA or DNI.
Information sharing is key for any organization, but within the intelligence community it’s absolutely essential. Web 2.0 technologies hold incredible promise for “connecting the dots”, and Wednesday’s panelists all agreed that it’s time to leverage them as part of a radical shift in daily operations. Intellipedia, the intelligence community’s comprehensive wiki, is a great resource, but in practice panelists say that it’s not being trusted for actual analysis. Social media tools simply aren’t being used to vet “truth”, and the information they produce isn’t being relied upon as actionable intel.
It’s understandable why this might be the case. Intelligence agents deal with the most highly classified and sensitive information in the world, and have been using processes to protect that information for years. Chris called it the “three-ring binder intelligence culture” - largely paper-based and operating on the assumption that if information wasn’t stolen, it isn’t valuable. He called it the “finished intelligence process”, and it’s extremely time consuming - with each agency producing individual reports like an independent newspaper. Web 2.0 resources could further the shared knowledge based of the entire community, rather than duplicating disparate efforts. There is some cultural resistance to new methods and technologies, but inaction might be the most dangerous option at this point. 9/11 showed how important information sharing amongst all levels of government can be, and our intelligence apparatus must have a communications infrastructure that connects all stakeholders. Panelists were strongly in agreement that a great first step would be having the three major intelligence agencies report to a central command, and mandating that IT systems are connected and able to communicate.
As we saw with the recent Iranian political protests, social media networks can be an extremely powerful information resource for governments around the world. In addition to using Web 2.0 technologies for internal analysis, intelligence agencies must find ways to gather valuable public information that exists on social media networks and analyze it out on the Web. The good news is that there is hope for major positive change. As Wyatt Kash of 1105 Media detailed in his recap of the session, the panel felt that shrinking budgets may actually push intelligence leaders to “do more with less”, and become more open to the incredible promise of “living intelligence” and and mashups. The work that intelligence analysts do on a daily basis is critical to our national security, and by incorporating tools like wikis, instant messaging and shared data resources, we can help them do their jobs more efficiently and effectively.
At the Gov 2.0 Expo in Washington, D.C., I had the privilege of listening to some real innovators discuss the ways Web tools and cloud computing are transforming government. Josh Robin of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation spoke about how opening up Massachusetts transit data unleashed a fury of citizen development that has provided passengers with a host of creative applications for real-time transportation information (@MassDOTdev). Australian Senator Kate Lundy (@KateLundy) gave a presentation about all the ways Australia is using Web tools to increase citizen participation and democratize data, reminding us all that Gov 2.0 is international in scope.
Microsoft’s Brad Smith discussed the momentum of cloud adoption, including Miami’s ground breaking 311 system and the University of Arizona’s recent decision to move to the cloud. But Brad also talked about the top challenges to cloud adoption, including infrastructure, privacy, security and emerging questions on national sovereignty. What happens when data from one country is hosted in another? Who owns the data and what laws apply? There is also a need for updated legislation. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act is a good law, but it was created 25 years ago. We need updated legislation that reflects the current computing environment, and this will take major collaboration between government, industry and consumer groups.
One of my favorite speeches of the day was from Danah Boyd (@zephoria) of Microsoft Research. Danah talked about the idea that transparency isn’t enough – that we need to provide citizens with the details and context required to actually interpret information. We also need to make sure that data isn’t spun, repackaged or misinterpreted to promote other interests. She used broadband as a perfect analogy. Broadband internet access has spread throughout the country giving more and more Americans access to online information, but we also need to give folks the digital literacy they need to make use of the technology. Much like Dan Kasun discussed on this blog earlier in the month, making the data available is step one, but we need to empower citizens with information and tools to use the data. Danah’s message was an important one – that transparency is a great goal, but that we need to be vigilant in ensuring that data isn’t manipulated or misrepresented after it’s made available.
Tomorrow promises to be another great day of Gov 2.0 discussion, so make sure to follow @gov2events for updates, in addition to our live tweets @FutureFed
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) held an event last week that brought stakeholders in the federal IT community together to discuss cloud standards for data portability, interoperability, and security. It was called the Cloud Computing Forum & Workshop, and members of the Microsoft Federal team attended to brainstorm ideas on how we can best facilitate cloud adoption in the federal government.
Below is a great recap from Susie Adams, Microsoft’s Federal Civilian and IGO Chief Technology Officer.
Last week I attended the National Institute for Standards & Technology (NIST) Cloud Computing Forum and Workshop, and it was clearly a serious effort to kick off collaboration between government and industry to accelerate the use of cloud technology. Dr. Pat Gallagher, Director of NIST, believes that cloud computing can make the U.S. government “more effective, more efficient, and we believe more secure.” However, Dr. Gallagher indicated that the government is falling behind the private sector in adopting cloud services, and that he shares the concern of Vivek Kundra, Federal Chief Information Officer, that government does not offer citizens and employees online services as robust as the commercial services of Facebook, for example.
Vivek Kundra pointed out (and followed up in his blog) that the U.S. government spends $76 billion on over 10,000 systems that serve 300 million people, including 1.9 million federal employees. He was clear that he wanted that money to be spent efficiently, and those citizens and employees to be better served. While he applauded the success of a number of U.S. government and state cloud efforts, he was also clear that he wanted to move faster, and that standards were in his mind a key part of the acceleration.
An industry panel got a chance to tell the forum what it thought would accelerate government use of cloud computing—and the answer was clear: “Act like a big customer!” In other words, eliminating agency-to-agency differences would lead to rapid adoption and cheaper cloud use. NIST’s Chief Cyber-Security Advisor, Curt Barker, summarized the feedback from the industry panel.
What I heard was:
The rest of the day had the same tone: focused on finding and fixing the actual impediments to cloud computing for the government, with a genuine sense of inter-agency cooperation, led from the top.
Last week Michael Biddick posted a blog entry for InformationWeek on caBIG, a cloud platform developed by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to bring researchers and medical personnel from across the country together in the fight against cancer. caBIG connects public health organizations, academic researchers and oncology institutes in a virtual environment to collaborate and exchange data. In the federal space our cloud discussions are typically focused on benefits like the efficient use of resources, cost-savings, and scalability. But when making the business case for cloud, sometimes it’s easy to forget the incredible potential it holds for research, innovation and scientific discovery.
Michael’s post reminded me of Microsoft’s partnership with the National Science Foundation, which provides scientists and researchers free access to Windows Azure cloud computing resources. The goal is to build collaborative research communities that have access to the same valuable data sets along with common tools and applications for sharing information. But cloud holds another benefit for researchers that deal in huge amounts of data – the ability to access massive amounts of computing power without having to build and maintain their own data centers. As my colleague Dan Reed notes, researchers like physicists and social scientists run calculations on enormous amounts of data, but they only need those computations done once in awhile. Rather than spending the money to build systems on site, the cloud enables researchers to access more sophisticated and powerful data centers only when they need them.
Between collaborations based on common data sets and computing power “on-demand”, the cloud makes a lot of sense for the researchers responsible for solving society’s biggest challenges. In the federal world, it makes you think of many ways cloud can bring efficiencies and solutions to government challenges involving massive amounts of data. Issues like benefits, intelligence sharing, acquisition and accountability (like Recovery.gov) are all areas that also come to mind, but I’d love to hear some other ideas so please post ideas below!
A recent report from IDC forecasts server revenue from private cloud implementations to grow from $7.3 billion in 2009 to $11.8 billion in 2014. This projection is much larger than the public cloud category, which IDC expects to reach $714 million in 2014. In a recent eWeek article, IDC analyst Katherine Broderick said that nearly half of report respondents (44 percent) are considering the deployment of private clouds in their IT systems, and that public cloud services appear less likely to be broadly adopted than private clouds. So what is the private cloud and why is there so much demand for it in the market?
The MITRE Cloud Computing Forum for Government recently tackled the issue of private clouds, asking “What do you consider to be the essential components or capabilities, necessary to create a private cloud computing environment?” My full response is below, but I recommend taking a look at the entire MITRE Forum for a wealth of great insight.
The idea of a “private cloud” really starts with how you define it, and there are many different definitions out there. NIST defines a private cloud as “cloud infrastructure operated solely for an organization.” That’s a good distinction, but others push it further and demand that data be hosted within a certain facility. Some define private clouds as a way to access services within an infrastructure that is closed by design – without connection to the Internet. Along this line of thinking, you could say that traditional hosting providers and federal systems integrators have been offering a type of private cloud for decades. For me it’s really about changing the traditional hosting paradigm to allow efficient access to services on-demand with a pay as you go consumption model. The procurement characteristics change, as does the concept of metered service, but the basic premise of the cloud is not a science fiction project. Cloud is an idea that builds on existing IT best practices like Web service, internet protocol (IP) standards and service-oriented architectures, many of which the industry has embraced for years.
The Internet has become part of cloud’s evolution because of its prolific adoption worldwide and the ever growing consumerization of IT. Citizens are increasingly using Web tools to communicate, make purchases and access information - blurring the line between enterprise and consumer based solutions. People are expecting more from IT both at home and at work, and it’s forcing government’s hand as it strives to connect with citizens, attract workforce talent, offer services more efficiently and become more open and transparent.
The cloud industry is currently building solutions within private data centers based on existing best practices in security, privacy and governance models. But leaders still have security concerns because they can’t touch the servers and customize the solution to the granular level of detail they are accustomed to. They want to look into the “black box”. To alleviate these concerns, there are great questions being asked by industry stakeholders. Should existing standards be modified to fit the cloud? How do government agencies know that C&A requirements are being met in public cloud solutions? What if there is a data breach or data leakage? Industry, government and standards organizations like NIST are working on solving these challenges, and best practices involving public cloud security will emerge over time.
The challenge involves highly specialized systems, perception and lack of maturity. The thought of hosting data in a non-government data center, on public servers owned by third party vendors, has always raised security and privacy concerns for government agencies. Traditional hosting solutions eased some of this concern by adhering to Federal C&A and allowing government customers to customize, audit and access facilities - all of which drive up the cost and time to market of the solution. The promise of cloud computing takes traditional hosting to the next level offering commodity based services that are cheaper and have a faster time to market because they are not unique services tailored to individual agency needs. The new government cloud offerings are tailored to a larger subset of government requirements and desire to apply a consistent, repeatable approach to C&A, SLA and service requirements across government. To the contrary, the need for highly customized, agency specific mission systems will always be a requirement.
The best thing industry can offer government is choice. Agencies need to be able to weigh the risks against the benefits for each application and decide whether or not an on-premise, public, private or hybrid solution best meets the risk profile of the agency, the application requirements and the data sensitivity profile of application data.
The end state goal for the cloud has always been “dynamic IT” - the ability to deliver computing services to people, devices and applications when and where they need them in a metered, only- pay-for-what-you-consume procurement model. Business models will change, standards will emerge and innovation will happen at rapid paces, but the need for choice and private clouds will be here for some time. It’s a vision and journey that I’m excited to be part of!
Last week, Vivek Kundra and Aneesh Chopra provided an initial assessment of federal agencies’ open government plans, and highlighted some of the some incredible work produced so far. Alice Lipowicz of Federal Computer Week provided a review of the innovative plan created by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and plans from the Department of Transportation and NASA have also been widely praised. In looking at the agency results within the Open Government Dashboard, it’s clear that most agencies have some work to do, and most of that work falls under the planning portion of the Directive. In terms of publishing high-value data, 27 of 29 federal agencies are currently meeting expectations. So the biggest challenge seems to be, we’ve published our data, now what? In looking at these results, I was reminded of a blog post written by Microsoft’s Dan Kasun back in February. Given all that’s happened in open government over the past few months, I thought it would be interesting to get Dan’s take on how agencies can overcome some of these challenges.
Teresa: Dan, we’ve seen some incredible progress from federal agencies in terms of publishing data sets. How can agencies best identify the data that’s going to provide the most value?
Dan: In the near term, agencies should really look for data that has clear, practical value for citizens. They need to find sources that are current and relevant today. Compelling information might include finances and spending, grants, jobs, government employment, real estate, public safety, and demographics. The goal is to publish information that people (especially developers) will be excited and passionate about, as opposed to information that’s relatively esoteric and unusable. Finding data that is versatile, can be applied to a number of different scenarios and correlated with other information will be especially beneficial, as it increases diversity of use and impact. Of course, sometimes it’s difficult to know beforehand what will and won’t be valuable, so it’s essential to monitor usage statistics. If nobody has used the dataset over a long period of time, it’s obviously not providing much value.
Teresa: In your original blog post on this topic, you talk about the perception in the technical community that just exposing data is enough. Why is this view incomplete?
Dan: Sometimes we developers get so wrapped up in solving “a problem” that we fail to step back and think about the broader goal. In the case of open government, the initial “problem” is publishing valuable data in a usable format, but the overall goal is enabling greater citizen participation in government. Making data available is only a small piece of that overall goal. Unfortunately, some of us just stop there and claim “mission accomplished” – without delivering on the rest of the requirements. At the end of the day we want to see useful applications as a result of these efforts. We want better service delivery and more citizen participation. The data itself means nothing to citizens without valuable, usable applications – so we need find ways to empower and encourage developers to take the next step.
Teresa: So what tools and information do we need to be providing in order to create an environment that yields valuable applications?
Dan: First, the data needs to be easily consumable. The federal community needs a consistent, open, structured format to enable broad use. It would also be beneficial to have a clear mechanism to identify the authoritative source for the data to avoid versioning and ownership issues. In my opinion, the best way to do that is to expose a single source of the data through open standards APIs, rather than downloadable datasets (you can also provide dataset downloads for unique uses, too, but it should be a secondary channel). Then we need to offer good tools and user interface technologies that enable developers to present the data in compelling and interesting ways. We need to improve citizen understanding and thus encourage participation. For obvious reasons, when people know more about a topic they’re going to be more apt to have opinions and get involved – and rich experiences can really help with that (imagine viewing an interactive chart vs. a text-based list of numbers). Furthermore, it’ll be critical to connect the right developers with the right domain experts, such as government employees who have a full understanding of the data, to make sure the solutions hit the mark.
Teresa: How do we get developers to actually spend their time writing applications in support of open government goals?
Dan: There has been a lot of momentum and enthusiasm for open government in the developer community, and initiatives like contests and competitions have sparked some great innovation. But what we’ve found is that even when a useful application is created through one of these programs, there is rarely any incentive to keep it alive. It takes time and money to build great solutions, and in order to get great talent working on long-term solutions, I think we need to up the ante. We can’t expect developers in the community, who have rents to pay and families to feed, to continue to invest their time and effort in perpetuity. We need to do a better job providing ongoing incentives for people to build innovative applications, and making people aware of those incentives. We need to find ways to make open government an engine for economic growth and job creation, and this can be done through marketplaces for solutions, advertising platforms, and additional commercial development opportunities.
Teresa: There have been some great open government solutions published over the last year. What are some of your favorites?
Dan: There are some great sites that provide API access to government data and foster the development of solutions such as Sunlight Labs, GovTrack.us, and the Open Government Data Initiative (in addition to the big federal sites such as data.gov, recovery.gov, etc., of course). Some of the interesting end-user solutions I’ve seen include DataMasher, which is fun to use to try to find interesting data combinations, Miami311, which has a really slick user interface, VanGuide, which has another great UI and combines some nice social networking, and Vancouver Parking (VanPark 2010) which is just a great, practical application that I’m sure was useful during the Olympics. New applications are coming up every day (and going down, unfortunately, which is what I’d like to fix), and as we get more usable data, I expect to see some amazing solutions that have a real positive impact on citizens and government.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) has the critical mission of protecting America’s natural resources. It’s not a small task, involving 2600 locations and over 70,000 employees spread throughout the country. Not only does DOI leadership need to connect and collaborate with personnel, but the agency must quickly and efficiently deliver information and resources to citizens. In the video below, DOI CIO Sonny Bhagowalia discusses the promise that cloud computing holds for federal agencies being asked to deploy solutions to stakeholders faster and more efficiently. Sonny provided his thoughts as part of Minds in the Cloud, a great Web resource for leading thinking on cloud computing in the federal government.
A recent article by Patrick Thibodeau of Computerworld points to some of the major frustrations organizations are experiencing in their move to cloud services. It’s difficult to find consistency in security standards and contract terms, and Patrick likens the unpredictability to a Wild West boom town. The variability exists because different vendors each come with a different set of rules, but we don’t want the Cloud industry to be defined by the extremes of the players.
The article cites commentary from industry sources concerned that “there aren’t even rules that would require cloud vendors to disclose where their clients’ data is stored – even if it’s housed in countries not bound by U.S. data security laws.” Cloud security standards are a top priority for both government and industry, and over time the best solutions will inform quality regulation, but in the meantime it’s incumbent upon vendors to offer total transparency, and for customers to demand it.
This is especially true in the federal government, with agencies responsible for protecting highly sensitive information. A study released this week by the Lockheed Martin Cyber Security Alliance revealed that 70 percent of government technology decision-makers reported that they were most concerned about data security, privacy, and integrity in the cloud. The good news is that the study also showed that as familiarity with cloud increased, so did the level of trust in it. As vendors it’s our responsibility to earn that trust, and that’s accomplished by being completely open about where data is being stored, and complying with absolute best IT security and privacy standards that exist today. When I talk to customers about ISO 27001, FISMA, ITAR, and SAS 70 Type I and II, they understand the requirements we’re meeting to protect their data, and it allows them to confidently reap the benefits that cloud offers. Agencies also expressed a strong preference for privately-controlled clouds, particularly for mission-critical data, and vendors must offer private and shared-environment options to meet these needs.
Another key point that Patrick’s article touched on was vendor lock-in. The article references a company called Doctor Dispense that signed a service-level agreement with a cloud provider that stated it could use only the hardware and software available from the cloud provider when the contract was signed. This is just a bad contract, and reinforces why interoperability is so important. We can’t force our government agencies into situations where they are forced to use dated products, or solutions that aren’t getting the job done. Interoperability amongst cloud providers broadens the market of available solutions, makes them more affordable and creates a competitive environment where agencies and taxpayers benefit from the increased innovation.
In 2008, the Obama campaign demonstrated how powerful the Web can be when building support for a candidate or cause. The campaign used the Internet to effectively distribute information, but also to engage citizens and solicit feedback. Web 2.0 tools have made this type of engagement possible, driving two-way online conversations for more meaningful collaboration among people that share a common interest or goal. In the federal space, we’ve seen this put into practice with communities like GovLoop and FedScoop, and portals like Recovery.gov have made government more participatory and transparent. To help other organizations leverage the power of online communities, Microsoft has built an engagement platform called TownHall. TownHall helps organize people around ideas or events, and is part of Campaign Ready, a broader set of technologies designed specifically for running political campaigns. See the video below for a brief demonstration.
This week, the White House issued a strategy for Federal Spending Transparency as part of a comprehensive effort to review and revise the Office of Management and Budget information policies promoting greater openness. Under the strategy guidelines, Federal agencies must publish draft plans for carrying out President Obama's open government and transparency.
We recognize the significance of these milestones and completely agree that open government needs to provide transparency, public participation, and collaboration with and to citizens. It is great to continue to see the administration’s push to promote this openness by advocating a “mixed source” blend of technologies for interoperability. As I wrote in a previous blog post, we at Microsoft believe that interoperability is critical to the success of the Administration’s long term goals of improving citizen access to government data.
In the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to have conversations with most, if not all, Federal agency CIOs and the topic of interoperability often comes up. System and program heterogeneity is simply a fact of life in Federal IT and in order to respond to government’s interoperability needs, I believe that, though standards do need to be developed, that in itself is not enough.
Standards are an important tool and one way to help facilitate interoperability, but they do not guarantee interoperability. In fact, even if two companies both fully implement the same standard, there is no guarantee that their products will interoperate as a result. Interoperability will require a variety of technical strategies, the use of standards and ongoing collaboration. And beyond technology, there is the need for government to drive interoperability through the use of standard terms and language (semantic interoperability), and for government agencies to become interoperable in their practices and process.
As industry races to respond to the President’s announcement, I challenge my peers to: 1) deliver interoperability in your products and technologies; 2) collaborate with partners, competitors, governments, and the open source community; 3) make it easier for others to develop products that interoperate with Microsoft solutions through developer resources such as protocol documentations; and last but not least, 4) promote interoperability through new and existing standards.
Last week I wrote about Microsoft’s participation in the Digital Adoption Coalition which, led by One Economy and Connected Nation, brings together internet service providers, technology companies, and nonprofit organizations to supply broadband internet service and affordable computers to traditionally underserved populations. Today, we are excited to announce a similar initiative, a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between the FCC, SBA, several industry partners, and SCORE, a nonprofit association dedicated to helping accelerate small business growth. The SCORE managed PPP, like the Digital Adoption Coalition, also recognizes the transformational role that broadband can play in shaping both the economy and society at large.
Today, at the Reagan Building in Washington, DC, we joined FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski; SBA Administrator Karen Mills; SCORE CEO Ken Yancey; Emily McHugh, owner of the online retail store Casauri; and Yamile Jackson, owner of the children’s online wholesaler Zakeez, for the announcement of this unique PPP established to support the mission of empowering small businesses as they move to embrace digital technologies and e-commerce locally, nationally, and globally.
Microsoft’s participation includes a contribution of $200,000 in cash for a period of two years, a $1 million software contribution, and providing the PPP access to our unparalleled ecosystem of over 300,000 partners, including 6,500 small business specialists, across the United States. These specialists are focused on helping small business customers drive innovation, save money, increase profitability and deliver innovative solutions. Through the PPP, SCORE will have access to Microsoft applications such as SharePoint, Dynamics CRM, BizTalk, OCS, and Office – giving it the ability to renovate its online resources to better support American small businesses and achieve the objectives of the FCC/SBA’s PPP.
As broadband internet access spreads to every corner of our nation, we understand that the work has only just begun. Broadband access alone will not transform, much less sustain small business in the long term. I encourage my industry colleagues to commit time to skills training efforts to ensure that the next generation of workers can understand and exploit broadband technologies for their worth.
Below is a brief discussion that I had today with SCORE CEO Ken Yancey, explaining the partnership:
In January, the NASA Nebula Blog encouraged federal agencies to pursue cloud pilot projects because they provide hands-on experience with limited risk. I couldn’t agree more. Pilots are a great way to introduce cloud technology and its benefits to agency leaders. In response to NASA’s post, MITRE made cloud pilot best practices the focus of its March question in the Cloud Computing Forum for Government. I participated in the forum and focused my response on choosing the right project and defining specific success metrics from the start.
For initial pilots, agency leaders should look for workloads that don’t include sensitive or mission-critical information. I’ve talked a lot about cloud security and the fact that it’s the top concern for federal agencies evaluating cloud technology. To minimize risk, agencies should start with information that’s already publicly available – like the high-value data sets published on data.gov in accordance with the administration’s Open Government Directive.
To evaluate the benefits, there has to be an apples to apples comparison of the costs of implementing using traditional IT vs. cloud models. Not every project makes sense in the cloud, and pilots are a great way for federal leaders to gain familiarity and experience with the technology to make the best decisions for their agency.
To view my entire response and the great contributions of everyone else on the forum, please visit the MITRE Forum.
Making our government agencies more energy efficient is not only great for the environment, it’s also a great way to save money. Power is expensive, and in this economic climate maximizing resources is essential. Events like Power IT Down Day remind us that we as individuals can have a huge impact in reducing energy consumption by doing simple things like unplugging electronics, but there are also strategies that agencies can employ that target energy savings on a broader scale.
1) Smart Operating Systems
Smart operating systems give end-users the computing power they need, when they need it. In the past, significant energy was wasted on tools and applications that weren’t even being used at the time. With Windows 7, we tackled this issue at the CPU level by changing the way services are accessed. Services such as Bluetooth for wireless devices will now be triggered when needed, rather than running in the background all the time. And if a user walks away from their PC, Windows takes advantage of idle time and scales hardware down to the lowest available power consumption levels.
2) Virtualization and Server Consolidation
Consolidating server applications through the use of hardware virtualization technologies can have an enormous impact on energy savings. Federal agencies use applications that run on so many different modes and versions, and they are often required to purchase more server processing power than they need. That extra, unused capacity consumes energy while sitting idle rather than processing current workloads. Server virtualization allows agencies to run multiple operating systems on a single server, or fewer servers, decreasing overall power usage. Our federal customers really like the fact that Hyper-V is included in Windows Server 2008 because it helps them efficiently allocate server resources.
3) Telework and Collaboration Software
As we’ve seen with the rise of Gov 2.0, technology has the ability to connect us in real-time, regardless of location. Strategies that reduce IT power costs are vitally important, but IT represents less than 5% of all energy consumption on the planet. The greater savings and value will come from the advancements that innovative collaboration software drives. Applications like Live Meeting, Sharepoint and Office Communications Server enable people to communicate and collaborate on documents across great distances. Not only does this save money in terms of travel costs, but it’s opened the door to agencies’ adoption of teleworking policies. The average Washington, D.C. commute accounts for over an hour per day, and agency personnel can now use that time productively while being kind to the environment through limiting drive time.
We like to say that environmental sustainability and financial sustainability are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they can go hand in hand as part of a holistic strategy. For more information on sustainability and to access our Energy Savings Calculator tools, visit the Microsoft Green IT page.
It’s easy to forget what life was like before the Internet. Banking, shopping, research, and social networking have all been transformed by the Web, driving incredible efficiencies in our daily lives. It used to be about search and email, but as the cloud has evolved we’re relying on the Internet to access necessities like healthcare and government services. Technology has the power to bring us together and connect us to the information we need, and as it advances people can’t afford to be left behind. The U.S. Department of Commerce recently found that 35 percent of Americans are without broadband internet access at their homes, and low-income groups are most affected. Many of these Americans aren’t connected because it’s just too expensive, which is why I’m so excited about the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) National Broadband Plan.
The FCC unveiled the plan last week after extensive research on the country’s needs, and it’s designed to spark action on broadband accessibility initiatives. In recent blog posts my colleagues Fred Humphries and Curt Kolcun have expressed Microsoft’s support for affordable broadband and the FCC’s call for the creation of strategic public-private partnerships in support of this effort. Microsoft is involved in a program led by One Economy and Connected Nation called the Digital Adoption Coalition, which brings together internet services providers, technology companies, and nonprofit organizations to help remove the obstacles Americans face in accessing broadband. The key components of adoption are awareness of broadband’s benefits, digital literacy training, and affordable computers and access. Coalition members will work with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to identify underserved communities and provide them with discounted monthly cable and DSL subscriptions, low-cost computers, and essential technology training. The best part about One Economy’s approach is that young people actually train their own communities. It’s no secret that kids pick up on technology quicker than the rest of us, and the goal is to provide young adults with the knowledge and skills needed to teach their friends and families how to realize the Internet’s benefits.
Broadband access creates a more informed citizenry and workforce. It has the power to improve people’s lives and strengthen our society. We’re extremely proud to be a part of this program, and look forward to working with our coalition partners to help close the Digital Gap in our country.
As the daughter of a math teacher, I had no choice but to love numbers. I have always been grateful that I was exposed to math and science at an early age because those disciplines are the foundation of technological innovation. Unfortunately, there are signs that America has been falling behind in these areas, which has prompted President Obama to launch the “Educate to Innovate” program to increase our students’ performance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The statistics are even more troubling for women, according to recent figures from the National Center for Women & Information Technology:
In many ways technology represents the future of both business and society, and women can’t be absent from this innovation. I talked about this recently with Ellen Scott of ExecutiveBiz, and in general I don’t think our society does enough to promote STEM programs, particularly to young women. We are working to change that through programs like Digigirlz. I discussed the program briefly last month, and tomorrow we’re hosting Digigirlz Day at our Chevy Chase, MD offices to help inspire future female IT leaders. Young women from the Washington, DC area will join Microsoft executives to learn more about the technology careers that are available and participate in product workshops involving the latest Microsoft technology. Congresswoman Donna Edwards is going to kick things off with a speech to the students, and we’re so excited to have her support on a topic she is so passionate about. Programs like Digigirlz are necessary if we’re going to close the innovation gap between America and other countries, and the gender gap that may limit our potential.