The GSA's new Apps.gov initiative is designed to provide storage, virtualization, and Web hosting solutions to all levels of government in the US.
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – Colocation and cloud computing provider Horizon Data Center Solutions (www.horizondcs.com) announced on Thursday that it is making the final preperations with its partner Eyak Technology (www.eyaktek.com) to provide virtual machines, hosting and storage to the US government through a Blanket Purchase Agreement awarded in November 2010.
As part of its preparations for the contract, Horizon says it is adding staff to assist with the migration and “gearing up to field inquiries from government agencies.”
The five year, competitively bid contract from the US General Services Administration (www.gsa.gov) was awarded to Horizon and EyakTek to provide a suite of virtualized services for the Federal Government Cloud Initiative.
The period since November has seen US Federal CIO Vivek Kundra’s 25 Point IT Management Reform Program released in December, requiring each government agency to identify three “must move” services within the first quarter of 2011 and create a plan for moving them to the cloud. According to Kundra, the first service has to be moved within 12 months and the second two must be moved within 18 months.
“There is incredible potential for government agencies with a shift to the cloud that will certainly lower costs and increase efficiencies,” Lance Black, CEO of Horizon said in a statement. “While some agencies will likely begin by choosing low risk or high maintenance applications to source out, we are focused on not only assisting with those migrations but becoming the first choice as a long-term resource for HorizonDCS.com developing and deploying new applications. We are prepared to enable Cloud First options for the government. That is our goal.”
According to the press release, Cloud First requires agencies to prioritize web-based applications and cloud technologies over non-cloud options.
Black says Horizon’s vStructure IaaS platform is ideal for agencies seeking a “robust hosting solution that can handle their first migrations as well as provide the framework for their future custom applications.”
“With the Federal Government Cloud initiative, as well as other trends, we have made a conscious decision to focus our expansion, capital, and staffing efforts into our vStructure IaaS offering. Traditional colocation remains an integral part of our business, and our data centers in Dallas and Northern Virginia remain the backbone of our business,” Black added.
Horizon’s vStructure IaaS architecture is a private cloud computing platform comprised of HP Blade servers, 3PAR storage and is virtualized with VMware.
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson writes full-time for the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto, and has been writing for the WHIR since September 2010. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
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