Google has announced it is building a government cloud. It has
launched a government computing online shop, to allow US
government users to buy cloud-based services.
The Apps.gov site is an online storefront to help government
agencies to browse and purchase cloud-based IT services from a
variety of service providers, including Google.
Matthew Glotzbach, director, product management, Google
Enterprise, said: "We want to do our part to make it easier for
government to make the transition to cloud computing. We recognise
that government agencies have unique regulatory and compliance
requirements for IT systems, and cloud computing is no exception.
So we've invested a lot of time in understanding government's needs
and how they relate to cloud computing.
Google plans to support US government standards, such as Federal
Information Security Management Act certification, in its
government cloud service, due to go live in 2010.
Google has not said whether the cloud service will be made
available to the UK government.
