DoD officials to bring cloud lessons to Microsoft/WT event

UPDATED with new DOD speakers.

Both policy and practicality of the cloud will come together at an event next week that we are hosting with Microsoft Azure.

We’ll focus on cloud implementations and issues at the Defense Department. But I think many of the lessons will apply broadly across government.

The event is May 12 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons, Va. Breakfast and networking starts at 7:30 a.m. and the program kicks in at 8.

{{{{UPDATED May 5: We've just confirmed Victor Gavin, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, information operations and space. He'll be our second morning keynote speaker. And we've confirmed Thomas Sasala, director of the Army Architecture Integration Center.}}}}}}

In addition to speakers from Microsoft there also will be several government speakers like John Bergin, Business Technology Officer in the DoD CIO office. He’ll be talking about the policy driving the cloud at the department.

His role is to identify business needs and match them with solutions. He wants to increase IT efficiencies and one of his primary focuses is on health IT as well as improving DoD’s integration with mission partners.

Another government speaker is John Connor, an IT security specialist at NIST. He’s been heavily involved with the FedRAMP process and he’ll be sharing how standards play a role in the cloud.

CSRA CEO Larry Prior will be on hand to share how his company and other integrators are pushing the cloud forward. The cloud is a big part of CSRA’s strategy to move next generation IT into the market so his perspective will be a valuable one because he knows what’s working and what’s not.

From Microsoft we’ll have Tom Keane, a general manager of Microsoft Azure. I’ve never met him but his team is responsible for Azure’s cloud infrastructure. He’ll be able to bring some perspectives from the commercial world as well as what he’s learned about cloud implementations in government.

I’ll act as MC and will try to absorb as much as possible because cloud has passed through the hype phase and now as agencies move deeper into applications and development, I think we are just scratching the surface of the cloud's power.

The event is free. Click here to register. And make sure you say Hi.