When the industry first began discussing the hybrid cloud computing model back in 2008, cloud computing purists pushed back hard. After all, they already thought private clouds were silly and a new, wannabe-hip name for the data center. To them, the idea of hybrid clouds that used private clouds or traditional computing platforms was just as ridiculous.

Guidelines provide a framework to help federal departments and agencies make sound, risk based security decisions about how to securely embrace cloud computing.

Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models.

Cloud computing offers a powerful complement to the more established IT solutions federal agencies have long used to conduct their operations. In the right circumstances, it holds the potential to deliver significant cost savings through resource sharing and elimination of redundancies. It also can offer instant scalability to meet expected or unexpected surges in demand. But the acquisition of cloud solutions represents a new approach that brings with it a host of new considerations for government CIOs.