US government advisor urges UK government to consult cloud experts

A senior advisor to the US government on the use of cloud computing has argued that the UK government should use the expertise of industry professionals to drive adoption of the technology.

Juan Carlos Soto, who is also senior vice president at data integration firm Informatica, told V3.co.uk that tapping such expertise will encourage the best use of cloud computing, and that he was surprised at its slow adoption by some nations.

"I would imagine in the UK that bringing in experts from industry, sometimes from academia and even other government agencies, perhaps those that were early adopters, could lead to very good recommendations," he said.

"I am surprised smaller countries haven't moved faster to cloud computing, and I commend the US in being rather bold with its cloud-first policy. But just like the private sector, nations will move to new technologies at different rates."

Soto acknowledged that security is an issue when using cloud computing, and that any deployment of the technology must be considered in the context of the data it is storing before it is implemented.

"No solution is perfect and some data will not be suitable for the cloud, so I would advise any government or enterprise to make sure they understand the cloud service they are intending to use and whether the security implications are acceptable," he said.

Nevertheless, cloud computing is "permanently changing" the IT landscape, according to Soto, even if the term itself may not exist in the coming years.

"Within my time in the IT industry the only other shift I have seen of this magnitude was the adoption of the internet and web services. Cloud is that fundamental a shift," he said.

"I don't know where it will end up from a terminology stand point. 'Cloud' happens to be a very convenient collective term, but the benefits of a service you use in a utility-like manner ... are compelling to any company."

The US government has identified potential savings of around $6bn from its annual $80bn IT budget by using cloud computing.

The majority of V3.co.uk readers believe that the biggest benefit of cloud computing for SMBs is access to enterprise technology without the need for a large internal IT resource.