UPDATED 16:03 EDT / OCTOBER 21 2011

NEWS

The Government Goes Internally Social with IBM’s SmartCloud

IBM is pushing for unification through the cloud.  They just announced the Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities which aims to provide a general view of information across city departments and agencies through real-time communication and collaboration.  Also, IBM is unleashing the full potential of their SmartCloud, an enterprise-class, secure managed cloud services platform that brings the best of public and private cloud models together to meet customer needs, as they now have infiltrated the government.

IBM merged social networking features and cloud features to make the SmartCloud Social Collaboration for Government.  This offers Software as a Service (SaaS) options for email and collaboration solutions that are designed to meet federal government guidelines and requirements. With these services, you can move from premise-based hardware and software solutions to a service that allows for a usage-based model without upfront investments.

The social aspect features:

  • IBM SmartCloud eMail – Government
  • IBM SmartCloud Sametime® – Government
  • IBM SmartCloud Connections – Government
  • IBM SmartCloud eMail Suite – Government
  • IBM SmartCloud Office Automation Suite – Government

The social aspect of the service allows government employees to save files in the cloud and tag people in saved documents.  The government is looking into making things more social for people on the inside.

“At the highest level, [government agencies] are looking for better collaboration for both inside and outside their firewalls,” said Chip Emmet, manager of social collaboration for IBM government and public sector.

The security levels associated with IBM SmartCloud eMail Suite – Government, IBM SmartCloud eMail Suite – Government Blackberry Service, and IBM SmartCloud Office Automation Suite – Government may be increased via the following options:

  • IBM SmartCloud eMail Suite – Government with Private Cloud
  • IBM SmartCloud eMail Suite – Government with Secret Enclave
  • IBM SmartCloud eMail Suite – Government Blackberry Service with Private Cloud
  • IBM SmartCloud Office Automation Suite – Government with Private Cloud
  • IBM SmartCloud Office Automation Suite – Government with Secret Enclave

The service is Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) compliant.  Simply put, no one outside the government will have access to any information or data stored in the service.

“To a certain extent, [IBM] is packaging and offering a set of solutions they already had,” said Shawn McCarthy, director of research at IDC Government Insights. “And there’s plenty of competition in that realm right now. So it allows them to continue to be a player.”

This collaboration for a cloud-based social network came from the government’s need for a service like this.  There’s a high demand in this type of service because this would allow government agencies to share private data among government employees or among specific agencies.  But just like any social platform, users can choose who to share certain files with because privacy is still the number priority as not all government files are for everyone to see.

The service is only available via Passport Advantage, and requires a customer-signed IBM International Passport Agreement and IBM SaaS Terms of Use Agreement.‎


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