My company (which is a government IT contractor) recently exhibited at the 29th annual National Space Symposium at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. IMCCA members AVI-SPL and Compunetix also exhibited at this event. Both firms provide valuable conferencing services to the DOD and Air Force.

Since its first meeting in 1984 this event has brought together leading firms and industry participants from around the world to discuss, address and dream about the future of space. Attendance has grown from barely 250 space enthusiasts at the inaugural event to an estimated 9,000 last year. The Space Symposium has become widely known as the premier U.S. space policy and program forum, and as the “must attend” opportunity for information on and interaction among all sectors of space.

Denver, and Colorado in general have a significant number of aerospace and military operations, including:

• Air Force Space Command (AFSPC)
• U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/U.S. Army
• Forces Strategic Command (SMDC/ARSTRAT)
• North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)
• U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM)
• Buckley Air Force Base
• Peterson Air Force Base
• Schriever Air Force Base

However, I was surprised to find out that it represents the second largest space economy in the world. I also really didn’t expect to see how significantly all of these organizations use videoconferencing, AV and digital signage to demonstrate what they do in outer space!

For the same reason many of the conferencing companies were started here in Colorado (a highly educated population, colleges with emphasis on technology, engineering and new energy, and a beautiful place to live 300 days of the year) eight of the country’s major space contractors have a significant presence in Colorado, helping the DoD procure, place, and manage national space assets to protect our country and increase its military and homeland security capabilities. Colorado’s aerospace companies develop manned and unmanned spacecraft, instrumentation, remote sensing, ground control and navigation services, and launch vehicles for NASA and other agencies. More than 400 companies and suppliers provide space-related products and services in the state.

 

The Denver Business Journal interviewed U.S. Air Force Gen. William Shelton, at the event. He is commander of U.S. Space Command headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. He described a decision not to pursue adding more of a certain kind of space surveillance satellite, because the Air Force “learned its lesson” with the existing one. “We unfortunately let requirements creep get the best of us,” Shelton said. “It doesn’t need to be nearly as exquisite as it is now.”

The U.S. Space Command has cut $508 million from its current year’s budget in response to the federal spending cuts known as sequestration, a lot of it achieved through 14 days of furloughs ordered for the space command’s civilian workforce and by a 50 percent reduction in contracts related to space command headquarters. Those were the cuts space command needed immediately to reach required spending under sequestration. No one talks of future budgets bouncing back. “I think this is an environment we’re going to be in for a long time, and it’s going to change how we think about our business,” Robert Strain, president of Boulder-based Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., told a large audience of industry officials Wednesday.

That same feeling was reflected throughout the conference. For some examples – the back of the cavernous Broadmoor convention hall where Strain spoke had dozens of open chairs, unusual in past years for a big-name panel like the one he was on. Military staffs reduced their presence at NSS. NASA didn’t come at all. It was harder to find the small toys and gizmos contractors put out in the exhibit hall (for attendees to take home to their kids.) Military generals spoke often of disaggregation.

Still, the strategy hasn’t yet found its way broadly into contracting, Shelton said. That’s good news for Colorado’s aerospace industry. Smaller budgets would not affect the Air Force’s bulk purchase of rocket launches from Centennial-based United Launch Alliance, the primary rocket-launch supplier of the federal government, Shelton said. Spending on launch-related services under the current Air Force budget has been trimmed 7.9 percent, and that may be increased to a 10 percent cut. But starting in the next fiscal cycle, the government’s fiscal year 2014, ULA and launch services spending should be OK, Shelton said. “You’ve got to provide launch services. It’s the start of any space capability,” Shelton said.

Developing satellites and space technology takes years — so long that the Air Force’s current big-ticket space programs will be preserved in future budgets. These include the new-generation GPS III satellites, Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellites, and the Space-based Infrared Radar System surveillance satellites. It’ll be the many smaller programs that will be changed, Shelton predicted. That’s good news to Jefferson County-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., which is building the GPS III, AEHF and SBIRS satellites – and all of the other aerospace contractors here.

Thankfully by using videoconferencing these companies, rocket scientists, and our military will continue to innovate and develop satellites that improve our communications, increase our security through new surveillance technologies and provide valuable data about the Earth.

“These courses will enable government employees to maintain and improve their communications and datacenter solutions, and offer our military clients a pathway for returning veterans to find employment with marketable skills to reenter the workforce…”

Compass Business Solutions provides courses that teach students about implementing, supporting and using communication solutions, and that also prepare students for Cisco certification tests. HPC Solutions provides information technology and communication solutions to Federal, State and Local governments.By partnering, these 2, women-owned small businesses have finally made it easy for the government to purchase the certified training it needs.

“We have been supporting the military and government by providing manufacturer-authorized training services since 2006,” stated Jules Trono, President of Compass. “Having our courses on a GSA Schedule, especially one as recognized as the HPC GSA Schedule, will remove the ordering complexity for our students. ” Compass is the largest provider of telepresence and videoconferencing training in the US and also offers private training sessions globally.

“Combining Cisco Certified training for video, voice and data, with our recent Strategic Sourcing BPA awards for videoconferencing and datacenters, HPC Solutions will be able to offer our customers a complete turnkey solution. These courses will enable government employees to maintain and improve their communications and datacenter solutions, and offer our military clients a pathway for returning veterans to find employment with marketable skills to reenter the workforce, ” said Linda Shugart, HPC Solutions CEO.

Students or companies interested in learning more about Compass’ training programs in the US and globally can visit www.hpc-solutions.net and www.compassprogram.com, and can contact Lisa Santiago at +1 (760) 688-4045 or +1 (877) 234-0635 for more information.

About Compass Business Solutions
Compass, the largest provider of telepresence and videoconferencing product line training, provides a one-stop resource for sales, technical and end-user training for visual communication products (compassprogram.com). Compass Business Solutions is a learning company focused on helping people use and support video communication and telepresence technologies to improve their business. Training sessions follow a best practices approach to optimize all aspects of video usage and support. Compass was founded in 2008 by industry professionals who have been working with telecommunication and video technologies since 1989 and who helped launch Tandberg University in the USA in 2006, then becoming Cisco’s first authorized TelePresence Specialist Learning Partner in the US.

Lisa Santiago, Customer Relations
Compass Business Solutions
+1 760-688-4045
lsantiago @compassprogram.com

About HPC Solutions
HPC Solutions is an Information Technology company that has a long history of innovation and superiorcustomer service in the Rocky Mountain region. Originally founded as High Plains Computing Inc., the company developed and implemented value added technologies in visual communications, computing, staff
augmentation, professional services and project management for government. The company offers a broad portfolio of services and solutions in information technology, professional and technical services, and communications. Working with leading manufacturers of IT Software, Cloud Computing, Audio Visual, Videoconferencing and Collaboration, Storage and Integration, customers have long relied on HPC Solutions as a trusted advisor and partner.

HPC Solutions has its own Cooperative GSA Schedule with multiple BPA Contracts within the Federal government. HPC Solutions is certified by the SBA as an 8(a), Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB), as well as a Woman Owned Small Business and is certified by the State of Colorado Department of Transportation as a
Disadvantaged Business Entity (DBE).PC Solutions

Emily Magrish, VP Marketing
HPC Solutions
+1 303-216-9270
emagrish(at)hpc-solutions.et

HPC Solutions recently announced a partnership with NexGen Storage to offer its customers an improved and unique storage solution. NexGen’s hybrid storage with QoS accelerates workloads with PCIe SSDs from Fusion-io. ioControl software allows customers to control storage performance and guarantee ROI on solidstate.
HPC Solutions is an Information Technology company that has a long history of innovation and superior customer service in the Rocky Mountain region. HPC Solutions was recently awarded a BPA (GS-26F-AA010 Strategic Sourcing Agreement) from the GSA for Storage and Servers.

NexGen’s n5 Storage System was recently named a winner in Storage magazine’s ‘Best Storage Product of the Year’ and the ‘Editor’s Choice Award’ for innovation by Virtualization Review. Storage magazine judges gave NexGen high scores for innovation, and highlighted its Storage QoS (quality of service) and use of PCIe solid state drives (SSDs) in a hybrid architecture. In addition, NexGen’s unique Storage QoS capabilities for mission critical applications, in mixed-workload and virtual server environments, were validated by an Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) lab test.

“We are excited to work with NexGen to offer our clients in federal, state and local governments new innovative technology that addresses challenges in storage not available previously. In addition to the strength of its storage QoS capabilities, NexGen Storage brings unique value to the market with an innovative tiering architecture that delivers high performance and affordable capacity. NexGen enables customers to move data in real-time between high-performing solid-state drives and economical capacity disk drives,” said Linda Shugart, HPC Solutions CEO.

”HPC’s recent BPA award has enabled us to work with them on an exciting project with a notable Denver area customer,” said Mike Koponen, Director of business development. “NexGen’s ability to provide consistent application performance and offer the lowest combined $/GB and $/IOP combines to provide a powerful
midrange storage solution.”

About HPC Solutions
HPC Solutions is an Information Technology company that has a long history of innovation and superior customer service in the Rocky Mountain region. Originally founded as High Plains Computing, the companydeveloped and implemented value added technologies in visual communications, computing, staff augmentation, professional services and project management for commercial businesses. The company offers a broad portfolio of services and solutions in information technology, professional and technical services, engineering and communications. Working with leading manufacturers of IT Software, Cloud Computing, Audio Visual, Videoconferencing and Collaboration, Storage and Integration, customers have long relied on HPC Solutions as a trusted advisor and partner.

HPC Solutions has its own Cooperative GSA Schedule with multiple BPA Contracts within the Federal government. HPC Solutions is certified by the SBA as an 8(a), Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB), as well as a Woman Owned Small Business and is certified by the State of Colorado Department of Transportation as a
Disadvantaged Business Entity (DBE).PC Solutions Visit www.hpc-solutions.net for more information.

About NexGen Storage

NexGen Storage allows IT organizations to take control of storage performance so they can virtualize business critical applications with confidence. NexGen is the first shared storage system that provides complete control over performance and the highest virtual machine storage density in the industry. NexGen systems transform how performance is managed with the ability to provision performance just like capacity and to maintain those levels with quality of service (QoS), and service levels. Committed to channel success, NexGen providesreseller partners registered deal protection and rich margins on every opportunity.

For more information, visit www.nexgenstorage.com.

Media Contacts
IGNITE Consulting, on behalf of NexGen Storage
Linda Dellett, 303-439-9398
Kathleen Sullivan, 303-439-9365
nexgen@igniteconsultinginc.com

HPC Solutions
Emily Magrish VP Marketing
303-216-9270 ext. 204
emagrish@hpc-solutions.net

FSSI encourages cross-government collaboration and adoption of industry best practices. This allows the government to aggregate requirements; streamline processes; and leverage its buying power. As a result, best value and repeatable processes are created that can be used in any acquisition environment to drive down the cost of commonly purchased commodities.

This Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative page provides a centralized source for many government-wide and agency specific Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) established against Federal Supply Schedules.

BPAs offer an excellent option for federal agencies and Schedule contractors alike, providing convenience, efficiency, and reduced costs. Contractual terms and conditions are contained in GSA Schedule contracts and are not to be re-negotiated for GSA Schedule BPAs. Therefore, as a purchasing option, BPAs eliminate such contracting and open market costs as the search for sources, the need to prepare solicitations, and the requirement to synopsize the acquisition.

HPC Solutions was recently awarded three BPAs: 

• GS-26F-Y0020  Video Conferencing Teleconferencing
• GS-26F-AA010  Servers, Racks, Data Storage, Network Communication Switches and Routers
• GS-26F-Y0024  Computers, Laptops, Desktops, Notebooks, Netbooks, and Warranties

Contact HPC Solutions today for more information about how these strategic sourcing agreements can help you!

Mobile technology can be a powerful tool for both productivity and citizen engagement, but there are implementation pitfalls to avoid.

March 18, 2013 By William D. Eggers

In a previous column, Jason Salzetti and I discussed the enormous potential of mobile technology to engage citizens as partners in transforming public services. Mobile government also can be a powerful productivity booster for the public sector. But the path from good idea to demonstrable results–especially when it comes to implementing a new technology across government–is littered with implementation failures.

I want to outline a  half-dozen steps that government agencies can take to realize the potentially enormous benefits of mobile while avoiding the missteps of previous technology implementations.

Rethink business processes: To realize a big productivity impact from mobile tech, governments will have to change the work. Mobile can reach its potential when public agencies use it to redesign their business processes and eliminate steps altogether. Take Boston’s Street Bump app, which uses the accelerometers of drivers’ smartphones to identify potholes and automatically report their locations via GPS. The app, in theory, could eliminate the need for engineers to painstakingly survey the city’s 806 miles of roadway and gather the data, accomplishing the same thing at less than half the cost. Technology deployed for a particular purpose can be modified for other situations: for instance, tweaking Street Bump’s algorithm to report where cars often speed through intersections or to predict where crosswalk paint has faded or lights are burnt out.

Define the problem you wish to solve: Productive organizations don’t “go mobile” for its own sake. They have a compelling business objective that mobile solutions can further. Government agencies should analyze how mobile can address their specific challenges. When Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources launched its mobile app for last-minute fishing licenses, it was solving a problem–the delay in recouping its money when licenses are purchased from third-party vendors. The agency is partially funded by user fees and cannot afford to let these fees linger in other people’s hands. The app made the licensing process quicker and more convenient for both government and citizens.

Adopt a “mobile-first” approach: A mobile-first strategy means making mobile tech a priority, instead of an afterthought, to fully capitalize on the medium’s growth and capabilities. It means leading with mobile apps and products, rather than treating them as enhancements or add-ons. When U.S. Environmental Protection Agency CIO Malcolm Jackson announced an agency-wide mobile-first policy, he emphasized that mobile access is rapidly becoming the primary way in which people seek government information. “A lot of people cannot afford personal computers or Internet service,” he said, “but they can afford smartphones, and they do not leave home without them.” A mobile-first policy should not apply only to new applications but should also require infrastructure designed to replace rather than duplicate existing processes.

Focus on user experience: Mobile apps are used differently than traditional computer applications–while moving or standing (rather than sitting), often in areas with limited bandwidth or intermittent connectivity, and sometimes in harsh environments. This requires careful attention to user experience and design. Involving citizens and frontline workers in the design process can provide valuable end-user insights for more effective applications. Factors such as ease of use, interface, appeal and functionality will play key roles in determining an application’s success. The approach should be to design apps that help large populations of regular users and are built around specific experiences.

Prototype, test, prototype again: In the “waterfall” development model that once dominated the world of software development, processes flowed steadily downward, from requirements to design to implementation to testing, and finally ending at maintenance. However, this meant that changes after initial deployment often proved cost-prohibitive. To overcome this, developers shifted to a model that allows for constant evolution through recurrent testing and evaluation–agile development. Agile assumes that we rarely get the design right the first time. Mobile-government implementation should look more like what we’ve termed “beta government”: rapid iteration and scaling to meet shifting needs and demands, through small prototypes and pilots, staged rollouts and allowance for small failures in an attempt to avert larger failures later.

Make mobile a source of security, not a threat to it: When it comes shifting to mobile in government, the discussion quickly turns to the security risks associated with the rapid growth of mobile computing, including possible data leakage over unsecured Wi-Fi networks and privacy breaches due to mobile malware. Instead of being a threat, however, a mobile device can act as a powerful security key with the ability to verify identity, transmit encrypted data or enable access to a particular site or service. The private sector has already capitalized on this trend. For instance, Bank of America’s SafePass program provides an extra layer of protection to online banking by texting a six-digit, one-time access code to the user’s registered mobile device. It’s easy to imagine governments using similar mobile authentication techniques to securely deliver personally identifiable or sensitive information.

Government agencies aren’t the only organizations trying to adapt to mobile technology. Many private companies struggle with this as well. But if mobile is a challenge, it is also an opportunity: a chance for the public sector to start closing the productivity gap, reassess its business practices, boost its efficiency and renegotiate its relationship with the public it serves. Used right, mobile can transform government’s capabilities.

This column, which is adapted from William D. Eggers’ and Joshua Jaffe’s new Deloitte University Press study, Gov on the Go: Boosting Public Sector Productivity by Going Mobile, was originally published at GOVERNING.com.   Image courtesy of Shutterstock :  http://www.govtech.com/e-government/Column-Six-Steps-to-Mobile-Success-in-Government.html

Microsoft CTO of State and Local Government Stuart McKee

March 13, 2013 By Elaine Pittman

Mobility is changing every aspect of computing in the public sector — from how workers perform their jobs to citizens’ expectations of government services. While the increasing number of mobile devices can create challenges, it’s also bringing new benefits to the public sector and changing the traditional thought process behind when and where work can be conducted.

Microsoft CTO of State and Local Government Stuart McKee, pictured above, anticipates the arrival of a new generation of devices within the next 12 to 24 months and said CIOs will have to set expectations about what the plethora of devices means to their agencies.

In this interview, McKee — who is the former CIO of Washington state — discussed the impact these devices will have on government and how Microsoft’s products are evolving to meet current and future needs.

 What is the future of productivity in the public sector and how will it shape the next wave of devices?

I don’t think the future is that unpredictable. I think what we’re seeing is our company’s vision of a PC in every home come to fruition. But I think Bill Gates and Microsoft may have missed it — it wasn’t just a PC in every home, but computing in every pocket, every home and every car and connected to everything else. And that trend, I believe, is going to continue.

I think one of the challenges for government will be trying to maximize the capabilities that are available in this network-enabled world in a way where government employees, assets and resources can be productive for citizens. And I think that’s a real challenge that’s becoming less of a technical problem and perhaps more of a policy issue. The CIOs of the future are going to have to stand up and try to articulate to policymakers why their workforce could be productive in a bunch of different geographies and locations.

 How will the proliferation of mobile devices impact government productivity?

On one side it’s going to cause some policy challenges; it already has. Unfortunately all you read about government is that bad stuff in the newspaper. And the idea that a government worker might work from home — as much as people would like to make that happen or know that would be a good thing for a bunch of reasons — among them increasing the workday, let alone decreasing travel and pollution or whatever political agenda you might put on it — but it is such a hard thing for traditional environments to deal with the idea of workers not coming to a central location. So the policy side of it is a big thing.

The other part impacting the productivity is the IT people trying to deal with it because as we have this explosion of capabilities, connectivity and devices, managing it becomes very hard. That’s not a new concept by any means; this is a challenge we have faced for a long time. When you standardize an operating environment, you can create a lot of efficiencies in operating it. Southwest Airlines is a very profitable airline, because they standardized their fleet and operational environment. And when you’re an IT guy and running an IT environment and everybody is bringing a zillion different devices with a zillion different operating systems and capabilities, that becomes unruly and something has to give. A lot of these IT folks are kind of turning their head to a security conversation because they want to enable this plethora of new devices.

How are Windows as well as Office and Outlook evolving to meet current and future needs for the government workforce?

There are three pillars I like to talk about. The first is choice. This is true for government, the private sector and  individuals if you think about how they operate in their personal life. Choice is the idea that Windows 8 is available on a whole bunch of different devices, and it’s very much an open ecosystem.

The second thing is mobility. It’s not just about mobility of individuals, but also mobility of their data. What we’ve done with things like SkyDrive and the capabilities we’re building into the operating system is making it location aware but location independent. The idea is I can have my data and my digital assets anywhere anytime and seamlessly synchronized across devices. … Increasingly I think it’ll be less important to information workers and other workers in general where their physical asset lives. It will become seamless. And I like the word “asset” because we’re talking about documents or spreadsheets or whatever it is. That asset in many cases will live in multiple locations and be synchronized between them.

Mobile assets are important and we want to make sure we enable those. If you have Windows 8, you have your machine and put your USB stick in, and you can create an encrypted copy of a snapshot of that operating system. You can go to other PCs and devices, plug in this USB stick and boot to it, and it’ll create a secure, encrypted operating environment independent of the other things on that machine. … It’s really an interesting mobile scenario, the idea of various governments and just being able to have your operating system in your pocket and not even have to carry a device.

And the last thing — we haven’t forgotten about this — security is still incredibly important to us. … There’s a scenario called trusted boot. When you boot a Windows 8 device, there’s no BIOS anymore — one of the attack vectors, if you will, was around BIOS. Historically you would turn on a machine and it’d load a set of directions to tell the computer how to use the disc, memory, motherboard and monitor bus, and then the operating system would load on top of that. What’s kind of scary right now is viruses that insert themselves below the operating system into the BIOS.

As governments are collecting more information, how can they crunch or crosswalk it across different spheres to be more predictive about where services will be required?

 There’s a belief that the more data I produce, the better, and I’d argue the that the more data you produce, the likelier it’s a needle in a haystack. More data is not the answer; better organized data is. So when I talk about big data, I want to talk about organized data, dealing with the large volumes and doing something meaningful to it. A lot of data should just go away — why put it on a disc? There should be an understanding that I’m not going to hoard it because I can, but maybe I should get rid of it because that’s going to help me get to better information.

A great example of big data in the way the processes are working and integrating various types of data is the NYPD. We recently announced a partnership with the police department in which they have a couple of very specific scenarios and one of them has to do with the sensors and real things they have on the streets and their real-time operations capabilities. … The idea is that the data from the sensors they have around the city — from cameras to traffic lights to traffic sensors to temperature gauges to environmental sensors — gets collected in a central area and is digested and processed in a way that allows analysts and city operations people to use that information in real time.

Then the secondary concept is to take some of that data over time and stack it into a different area or set of databases that allow more analytical processing and trend analysis.

 What do you predict will be the big tech trends this year?

If I didn’t say Windows 8 I’d probably get in trouble, but I truly believe Windows 8 is going to change a lot of things with the unification of capabilities across multiple devices. I think we’re going to continue to see the evolution and maturing of the tablet space, but our belief is that you’re going to have the convenience of a tablet with the capabilities of a PC. I think that’s something we’re going to see as an expectation for these devices coming to fruition.

The other thing I think we haven’t solved quite yet is the last mile issue, and I have great expectations that this administration at the national level will continue to push some of the broadband agenda. I hope that we’ll see some breakthroughs in networks. Whether that’s some sort of wireless capability, maybe it’s our cellular network, maybe it’s WiMAX, but I expect in the next year we’re going to continue to see not only an incremental evolution in our connectivity but maybe see some kind of really interesting breakthrough.

The last thing on my wish list is batteries. We are long overdue for a leap in battery technology. If you think about not only carrying your phone and your mobile device around and how untethered you can be and for how long, but also for backup and recovery type scenarios. New York’s a great example: Lower Manhattan went dark for quite a while [after Hurricane Sandy], and currently we have to fire up generators and that scenario is very difficult: The generator is only as good as how much gas you have stored. I hope some of that battery technology will get to a time where we’ll have more capabilities.

(Photo of Stuart McKee by Jessica Mulholland: http://www.govtech.com/pcio/articles/Era-of-True-Mobility.html)