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Cloud Expo Authors: Tom Flynn, Stephen Pierzchala, Elizabeth White, Jeremy Geelan, Maureen O'Gara

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Benioff & Capellas Head New Cloud Advisory Panel

To Make Recommendations on Government Use & National Leadership

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff and VCE CEO Michael Capellas, the guy who sold Compaq to HP and now heads the VMware-Cisco-EMC alliance, will be whispering cloud advice into the ear of the US government as co-chairmen of a new Cloud2 commission set up by the 30-year-old TechAmerica Foundation.

The commission is supposed to "make recommendations for how government should deploy cloud technologies and address policies that might hinder US leadership of the cloud in the commercial space."

It's got three months to assemble its recommendations.

The ears into which they'll be pouring their advice belong to federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra on the government deployment side - worth upwards of $20 billion - and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Commerce Undersecretary Pat Gallagher on the commercial-facing side.

The Obama administration is already committed to a cloud-first policy.

The commission is supposed to be composed of experts from industry and academia including Michael R. Nelson, visiting professor of Internet studies in Georgetown University's Communication, Culture and Technology Program.

CSC president of North American public sector Jim Sheaffer will serve as vice-chairman, leading a task force focused on government adoption of cloud solutions and Microsoft corporate VP of technology policy and strategy Dan Reed, who also leads the company's eXtreme Computing Group (XCG), will also serve as vice-chairman and lead a task force focused on US leadership in cloud technologies.

Nelson said that policies and business practices that slow the cloud's adoption have got to be dumped.

The TechAmerica Foundation, which has a history of getting its recommendations accepted, is currently taking applications for seats on the Commission on the Leadership Opportunity in US Deployment of the Cloud (Cloud2) from academia and industry. The tight deadline is March 11. A donation is expected. 

More Stories By Maureen O'Gara

Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025. Twitter: @MaureenOGara

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