Cloud computing to drive global job creation

The growth of cloud computing is expected to create 2.4 million jobs in the next four years in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, according to Cloudtweaks.com. The prediction comes from a report released by IT company EMC and a United Kingdom think tank.

In India alone, the cloud market is expected to increase from $400 million today to $4.5 billion by 2015, reports Indo Asian News Service. That growth could translate into 100,000 new jobs in India, according to a survey of CIOs in that country.

“Cloud computing will reshape the Indian IT market by generating new opportunities for vendors and driving changes in traditional IT offerings,” said Pari Natrajan, chief executive of management consultant company Zinnov, according to IANS.

For cloud adoption to grow, people are going to need human resources as well, IANS quotes an IT company executive as saying.

How the cloud will impact U.S. job creation is unclear now. Although the manufacturing sector of the technology industry continues to shed jobs, jobs in software services are growing, according to Global Corporate XPansion.

Josh James, director of research and industry analysis, TechAmerica, told GCX: “Software services were the only one out of four sectors [which TechAmerica tracks] to add jobs. The sector showed strong employment records throughout the ups and downs in the economy. They were the last to get rid of jobs in the middle of the economic downturn and the first to start adding again.”

What states can teach agencies about cloud computing

State governments, just like the federal government, are looking for ways to do things better, faster, and cheaper.

Michael Kerr, senior director of state and local government for Tech America, says one of these areas is cloud computing.

“We are seeing states taking the lead on the application and implementation of certain concepts and technologies, among them virtualization. They are well down that road. Now they are moving to cloud solutions at a little faster pace than, perhaps, even the federal government.”

Kerr says there have been several successful projects in these areas in New York City, Los Angeles, and in the states of Minnesota and California over the past few months.

As states have to confront the prospect of leaner budgets, they really do need to look at different scales and different efficiencies that are available through some of these solutions, which previously may have seemed daunting. I know there are some issues in the government space with the adoption of cloud. However those big states and cities have been able to work their way around those.

Kerr joined the DorobekINSIDER to talk about these issues and the release of the new Tech America report, “Why Think Enterprise? State and Local Government Options for Reducing Costs and Improving Services.” Hear the full interview by clicking the link at the top of the page.

Agencies raise questions about cloud computing

It seems like everywhere Federal News Radio goes, people are talking about the cloud.

Experts at TechAmerica’s 2010 IdentEvent questioned whether moving all agencies to the cloud is possible in the short term. This on the heels of GSA issuing its draft requirements for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP).

Those sitting on the “Securing the cloud: Authentication, Security & Continuous Monitoring” panel at the event, agreed that each agency has potentially different uses for the cloud that come with their own sets of concerns.

One of the questions being discussed is whether agencies should start with a private or public cloud.

David Stender, associate chief information officer for cybersecurity at the IRS, told those in attendance he’s a bit skeptical of the cloud. He said he has yet to see any cloud service provider show him how information can be kept verifiably secure through every step in the process. “Not a single cloud service provider has been able to do that yet,” he said.

Federal News Radio’s Scott Carr was in attendance at the event. Be sure to check out more of the panel’s cloud computing concerns by reading Scott’s full report.