Considering that it’s a secondary source and therefore subject to being corrected later in an official announcement, but this is pretty big.  Requiring the Departments and Agencies to consider cloud solutions both scares me (security, governance, and a multitude of other things about rushing into mandated solutions) and excites me (now cloud solutions are formally accepted as viable).

However, before you run around either proclaiming that “this is the death of serverhuggers” or “the end is nigh, all is lost” or even “I for one welcome our fluffy white overlords”, please consider the following:

• A “secure, reliable, cost-effective cloud option” is a very loaded statement very open to interpretation
• They already have to consider open source solutions
• They already have to consider in-sourcing
• They already have to consider outsourcing
• “Cloud” more often than not includes private clouds or community clouds
• Isn’t this just another way to say “quit reinventing the wheel”?
• Some Government cloud initiatives are actually IT modernization initiatives riding the bandwagon-du-jour
• Switching from Boeing, Northrup, and SAIC beltway bandit overlords to Google, Amazon, and SalesForce cloud overlords still mean that you have overlords

• Clouds, FISMA, and the Lawyers
• NIST Cloud Conference Recap
• FedRAMP: It’s Here but Not Yet Here
• Analyzing Fortify’s Plan to “Fix” the Government’s Security Problem
• Wanted: Some SCAP Wranglers

So now that His Esteemed Highness Eric Schmidt has declared privacy dead, our IKANHAZFIZMA team of LOLCATS wants to know if they can resume their usual collection of cellular traffic.

References:
Gawker: Google CEO: Secrets Are for Filthy People

Schneier Blog: My Reaction to Eric Schmidt

Download Squad: Only naughty people should be afraid of Google, says CEO Eric Schmidt

The Register: Google chief: Only miscreants worry about net privacy

• Redundant Lolcats
• Lolcats Coming to you from the Cloud
• Lolcats and QR Codes
• Lolcats Protect the End Users
• Lolcats, Capital Hill, and a Haiku