The General Services Administration’s (GSA) digital services team last week introduced a new Federal cloud service intended to help agencies develop applications in the cloud.
18F, the 19-month old digital consultancy that is part of GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, will provide agencies with a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution that rests on its Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering.
It will allow agencies to develop and run applications without having to use – or even build – their own infrastructure to support the work.
In its formal announcement, GSA described Cloud.gov as a PaaS solution that “can be used directly by developers, and bridges the gap between small service teams and advanced infrastructure skillsets, while keeping headcount to a minimum, saving thousands of dollars.”
18F used the open source project, Cloud Foundry, to create the Cloud.gov.
While Cloud.gov could save money, it could also save time.
Cloud.gov is a significant development because it could speed up efforts to move agencies to the cloud, said Jamie Berryhill, chief of policy, budget, and communications at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
“The vision for cloud.gov is to make it easier for in-house software developers to develop quickly,” Berryhill said. “I think cloud.gov is a significant step in allowing agencies to develop and prototype rapidly in a flexible environment.”
As 18F describes it “cloud.gov takes care of infrastructure concerns so teams can focus all of their efforts on their app rather than fighting the environment.”
18F’s social media team on October 15 tweeted that Cloud.gov remains in pilot.
Read GSA’s official announcement here.
Read 18F product lead Bret Mogilefsky’s blog about Cloud.gov here.
Agencies interested in working with 18F can contact the agency at https://cloud.gov/#contact