Comments on: PITCOM Meeting report: Cloud Computing – Opportunity or threat? http://www.headstar.com/egblive/?p=399 This blog complements E-Government Bulletin, an email newsletter on the use of digital technologies to enhance public services & democracy Mon, 06 Sep 2010 09:51:59 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Emily Williams http://www.headstar.com/egblive/?p=399&cpage=1#comment-5766 Emily Williams Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:03:03 +0000 http://www.headstar.com/egblive/?p=399#comment-5766 We who work for the City of Los Angeles are standing on the very precipice as we become the first U.S. government entity to migrate all of our information over to the Google cloud. I am not in IT, so the phrase 'cloud computing' was foreign to me until a few months ago and I've been reading furiously to get up to speed on what this all means. Although some of the earliest city depts to migrate over have encountered some problems, I'm hopeful these glitches will be cleared up soon. Articles such as this clearly lay out both the caveats and the possibilities. And, as far as I'm concerned, the positives far outweigh the negatives! We who work for the City of Los Angeles are standing on the very precipice as we become the first U.S. government entity to migrate all of our information over to the Google cloud. I am not in IT, so the phrase ‘cloud computing’ was foreign to me until a few months ago and I’ve been reading furiously to get up to speed on what this all means. Although some of the earliest city depts to migrate over have encountered some problems, I’m hopeful these glitches will be cleared up soon. Articles such as this clearly lay out both the caveats and the possibilities. And, as far as I’m concerned, the positives far outweigh the negatives!

]]> By: Michaela http://www.headstar.com/egblive/?p=399&cpage=1#comment-5717 Michaela Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:10:39 +0000 http://www.headstar.com/egblive/?p=399#comment-5717 Just reading this article, and I am in total agreement about the wave of cloud computing being unstoppable, and a good thing. However what also jumped out at me was the idea of public bodies seeing data they hold as an asset, outlined in the below quote - as this is exactly what the MHRA (Government's medicines watchdog - and holder of a drug information database) is currently having an online discussion around at which weirdly enough started yesterday! It appears public bodies are already starting to understand this notion... ""The final point to understand about a ‘cloud world’ of huge, joined up databases, is the need for public bodies to look on their data as an asset, he said. “So for example the national collection of orthopaedic or other medical data should be seen as a national asset of enormous value, perhaps like a 21st century equivalent of a property estate.”" Just reading this article, and I am in total agreement about the wave of cloud computing being unstoppable, and a good thing.

However what also jumped out at me was the idea of public bodies seeing data they hold as an asset, outlined in the below quote – as this is exactly what the MHRA (Government’s medicines watchdog – and holder of a drug information database) is currently having an online discussion around at which weirdly enough started yesterday! It appears public bodies are already starting to understand this notion…

“”The final point to understand about a ‘cloud world’ of huge, joined up databases, is the need for public bodies to look on their data as an asset, he said. “So for example the national collection of orthopaedic or other medical data should be seen as a national asset of enormous value, perhaps like a 21st century equivalent of a property estate.””

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