An excellent article by Stephen Shakland on CNET about the conversion from IPv4 to IPv6. The crunch is looming, and conversion to the longer IPv6 Internet addresses looms. He rightly points out that in some ways it's similar to the Y2K problem: some hardware and software will not be able to handle the new addresses. It's not a lights-out scenario (despite a lot of media hype Y2K wasn't) but there are important points raised.
How better to celebrate the Winter Solstice than Jesse and Joe Donahue discussing Cloud Computing. What is it, will 2011 be the year of the cloud, and what does it mean?
Shift to “Cloud First” policy . Each agency will identify three “must move” services within three months, and move one of those services to the cloud within 12 months and the remaining two within 18 months.
Josh Lowensohn of CNET reports that Microsoft has won the US Department of Agriculture contract to support email, instant message, and collaboration with Business Productivity Online Suite (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Office Communications Online). This replaces 21 on-site systems in 5,000 offices. The immediate impetus for is the looming need to replace the servers for the existing system. The move is expected to be complete in four weeks.
Marjorie Censer reports in the Washington Post about the move by the General Services Administration (GSA) to move its 17,000 email accounts to a Gmail-based email system. It's the first government agency to make the transition to the policy announced recently by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
