blog We can’t say we’re surprised by the news that Canberra’s public sector chief information officers are discussing sharing computing capacity with each other, in what many are starting to call a government cloud or “G-Cloud” cloud computing-type situation. After all, such an idea was mentioned in AGIMO’s recent cloud computing paper. Quoth iTNews:

Human Services deputy secretary of IT infrastructure John Wadeson told iTnews in an extensive interview this week that chief information officers among these departments are informally investigating the ability to share capacity during periods of peak computational load.

Such sharing of resources makes complete sense — and we’d like to see such a tactic tied into the Federal Government’s datacentre strategy as well — why shouldn’t most future government datacentre facilities be built with this kind of server infrastructure sharing (and not just physical space and power sharing) in mind?

It makes complete sense for government departments, which after all don’t compete with each other, to share resources as much as possible. And the best way to kick a larger project off in this way is probably to let the individual CIOs negotiate between each other and share resources organically — that way short-term tactical outcomes can be achieved and practical experience can guide a long-term strategy.

The only question we have is — if resources start being shared with the Australian National University and CSIRO, which both conduct quite a bit of physics-related research, would the resulting cloud have to be described at times as a “G-String” (think String Theory)?

OK, yes, a totally weak joke. But it was the first thing we thought of when the term “G-Cloud” came up. So sue us ;)

PS: Also check out iTNews’ excellent full interview with Wadeson here.

Image credit: Vladimir Fofanov, royalty free

Related posts:

1. Granularity enters APRA’s cloud computing stance
2. Privacy risks plague cloud computing, says commissioner
3. AGIMO drafts cloud computing strategy
4. Federal Govt kicks off cloud purchasing cycle
5. Offshore cloud privacy may be “impossible,” says commissioner

Tweet

1. Tom
   Posted 18/01/2011 at 5:20 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Terrible, terrible, terrible joke. Just terrible. Don’t quit your day job. Unless you plan more jokes like that, in which case, please. Quit your day job.

   • Renai LeMay
     Posted 18/01/2011 at 5:49 pm | Permalink | Reply

     Why thank you :) I think I may be qualified to be a Dad ;)

2. Thateus
   Posted 19/01/2011 at 10:35 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Hey Renai – no humour please. It does not become you.

   CSIRO and ANU already have a quite respectable arrangement already (Google for NCI).

   The G-cloud is an immature concept – remember the fed govt funds their depts to implement certain strategies and services. They’d hardly be keen to see it all undone because “Centrelink didn’t get top priority on the G-Cloud so noone got welfare until a day later”. “where’s our QLD flood predictions?” “oh it’s in the G-Cloud, but Immigration are doing a really big database correlation so we’re a few hours behind”.