DALLAS – Feb. 10, 2011 — As hundreds of government agencies work quickly to identify the IT services they will move to the Cloud as part of the federal government’s new Cloud Computing initiative, Dallas-based Horizon Data Center Solutions is finalizing the additional staffing and other preparations for a large share of that business, particularly for those agencies that will embrace the government’s Cloud First mandate.
Upon conclusion of the rigorous FISMA Assessment & Accreditation process, Horizon is ready to take on its piece of the General Service Administration’s Federal Government Cloud initiative as the Enterprise IaaS partner to Eyak Technology. EyakTek and Horizon are one of just three teams that were awarded a Blanket Purchase Agreement across all three aspects of the requirement: virtual machines, hosting, and storage.
Horizon is staffing up and gearing up to field inquiries from government agencies as they respond to U.S. Federal CIO Vivek Kundra’s 25 Point IT Management Reform Program, which he released in December. The plan requires that each government agency identify three “must move” services within the first three months of this year and create a migration plan for moving them to the cloud. The first service has to be moved within 12 months, with the other two required to 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. 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 developing and deploying new applications. We are prepared to enable Cloud First options for the government. That is our goal,” says Lance Black, CEO of Horizon.
Cloud First as defined by the government requires agencies to look first to web-based applications and commercial or custom built cloud technologies and give them priority over non-cloud options. Horizon’s vStructure™ cloud computing platform supports a methodology for creating and deploying new custom applications in a consistent virtual environment. Black says vStructure™ is ideal for Cloud First thinking.
While agencies will be able to eliminate redundant, antiquated or underutilized infrastructure by shifting services to the cloud, the excitement comes from the new way of thinking and the ability to create custom apps that are purpose built for cloud computing, Black says.
Black says a recent example cited by Mr. Kundra of a government program that would have excelled on the cloud was the Cash for Clunkers program. To support the government’s plan to get old cars off the road, the government built a custom application and hosted on traditional servers. While they anticipated demand at 250,000 transactions, interest went through the roof, and nearly three times that number of transactions came in. The system was plagued with service interruptions and downtime while the agency scrambled to expand capacity.
“All of those problems go away with cloud first thinking. You can add or subtract capacity quickly and easily,” Black says.
Black believes Horizon’s vStructure™ IaaS platform will be a popular choice for agencies that want 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.
Horizon operates Tier III, SAS 70 Type II data centers in Dallas and Northern Virginia that are connected to a private fiber network. The company’s vStructure™ IaaS architecture is a private cloud computing platform comprised of HP Blade servers and 3PAR (now an HP company) storage. It is virtualized with VMware.
For more information on Horizon, visit http://www.horizondcs.com/Private-CloudInftastructure-as-a-Service.aspx
About Horizon Data Center Solutions
Horizon Data Center Solutions has changed the way data centers operate by offering customers a better way to do business. The Horizon team is led by experts in the data center industry who are focused on delivering enterprise quality colocation and managed services to clients both large and small. Horizon is focused on a true partner relationship in data center services. For more information, contact Horizon at 866.620.7516 or visit www.horizondcs.com.
vStructure™ is a Registered Trademark of Horizon Data Center Solutions. All rights reserved.