Expert Q&A: What Your Agency Needs to Know About Open Cloud

Over the past 12 months, open source has been on the move. So has cloud computing. Research has shown that migration to cloud computing may save the U.S. government $20 billion per year. And over 77 percent of federal IT executives said in a recent survey that they believe application development to be “vital to their agency’s ability to meet mission objectives.”

Agencies seeking improved capabilities have been moving to open cloud technology for years, but the question persists: How do agencies modernize without investing in strategies that will quickly become obsolete?

Switching over to a new technology is more than just a software upgrade, but rather a thought evolution. Gunnar Hellekson, Chief Strategist for Red Hat US Public Sector, recently gave insight into the state of open source and cloud today. He shared how agencies can smartly migrate to these new solutions—preparing agencies not just for the demands of today, but also for the needs of tomorrow.

With new policies flowing from both GSA’s 18F and the US Digital Services’ latest playbook, open source seems to be coming into its own in the public sector. What is your reaction to these new open source policies and what does it mean for open source in government?

These new policies and projects recognize that open source is how innovation happens today. A lot of people think about these policies as innovative or cutting-edge: they’re not. Having an open source strategy and writing open source software is the very least an agency can do to keep pace with industry.

Lay it out for us, what does “open source” actually mean in the context of government? What are its key benefits for government?

Agencies started using open source because they wanted to save money since it’s often orders of magnitude cheaper to buy and maintain. Then they quickly realized that it moves and innovates faster than proprietary software. Security fixes happen faster, and bugs are resolved more quickly. That’s because these open source projects have dozens or hundreds of contributors, all working together to solve problems they have in common. And agencies themselves can get involved in the process. The Navy got “real-time” features included in Linux, the White House contributed to the Drupal content management system, and the Department of Energy has been using open source collaboration in supercomputing since before I was born. They’ve found government-specific problems and built open source communities around the solution. That means fewer redundant systems and more control.

In your experience, what are the most common misperceptions government has about open source solutions?

I am delighted to report the notion that “if it’s open, it can’t be secure” is almost unheard-of today. Everyone now accepts that keeping code secret doesn’t make it more secure, and that openness, responsiveness and transparency are the best defenses against attackers. Still, I’ll sometimes hear that open source is actually more expensive than proprietary software because it’s complicated and hard to keep running. I’m suspicious of categorical statements like that. Some software is easy to use, and some software is difficult, and that can change depending on the context.

Looking to the future of federal IT, it seems fully embracing and implementing a cloud infrastructure is pivotal for any public sector organization looking to meet mission and keep up with the demands of its many constituencies. What’s your take on the current state of cloud in the federal government?

It’s not an accident that open source has grown alongside cloud computing. The relationship is symbiotic, since cloud services for collaboration and on-demand development platforms have made it easier than ever to start and maintain an open source project. For agencies accustomed to waiting months for servers to be installed, this is a wonderful opportunity. Some have embraced these new tools, and this new way of collaborating, and immediately find themselves building more useful tools, more quickly, with far less money.

As more and more agencies jump into cloud, age-old fears about vendor lock-in persist. In your view, what’s the smartest way to make the migration and side step concerns about vendor lock-in?

First, I advise agencies to use a hybrid cloud model. Hybrid clouds make it easier to manage regulatory and security concerns: public clouds for the public data, and private clouds for PII and sensitive or classified information. Second, I advise them to use open source cloud platforms. Third, I suggest a formal exit strategy. In broad terms, that means not buying something unless you know exactly how you will leave it. Technology is constantly improving, and your technology acquisition strategy should reflect that: expect to migrate your workloads. That keeps your business competitive and saves a lot of time and money down the road.

For agencies looking to scale their cloud capabilities, what’s the connection to open source? How is a solution provided by your own organization, Red Hat, different than other offerings?

It’s exciting to see all this interest in open source and all this interest in cloud come together. It’s a pure expression of all the principles we’ve been talking about: the hybrid approach, innovation, open standards and exit strategies, all enabled by this suite of tools. Red Hat has been the leader in enterprise open source software for over ten years. We’ve taken all these open source projects and made them available as a single package that creates the kind of hybrid cloud we’ve been talking about. We call it the Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure.

How does a solution like OpenStack—and the partnership between Red Hat and Cisco—empower public sector organizations?

We’re very excited about this. Our partnership with Cisco on OpenStack has received a lot of attention. The project actually started as a government project at NASA. Since then the platform is building out at a breathtaking pace. We’re proud to be one of the leaders on the OpenStack project because it is significantly lowering the barrier to entry for agencies that want to build a cloud internally.

If an agency is looking to get started with a solution like Red Hat Cloud for Government, where should they begin?

The "Red Hat for Government" website has additional information and resources for you to learn more. There is a video that shows how our consultants are working with agencies today to introduce new technology like the award-winning OpenStack® and OpenShift platforms to  get you ready for the next 10 years, without vendor lock-in. You can also request that a consultant contact you to discuss your specific challenges and environment to  see if a cloud assessment makes sense for you.

Looking to the next 10 years of IT, what are the things agencies can do today to “future proof” their infrastructure to ensure they’re not simply investing in tomorrow’s costly, legacy system?

A friend of mine likes to say that we’re “building the legacy systems of the future.” I take that to heart. What works well for us today isn’t what will work in five years. It shouldn’t! Technology progresses, and gets better. That’s why open source is so important: It’s the vehicle for that progress, and will be for the foreseeable future. That’s also why exit strategies are so important—they make us available to that innovation.

About Red Hat

Click here to learn more about how Red Hat Cloud for government and open source can prepare your agency for the next 10 years of IT.

Gunnar Hellekson is the Chief Technology Strategist for Red Hat Public Sector. Red Hat is the world's leading provider of open source solutions, using a community-powered approach to provide reliable and high-performing cloud, virtualization, storage, Linux, and middleware technologies. Together with Red Hat’s solutions, Red Hat’s worldwide support, training, and consulting services provide everything you need to bring the power and freedom of open source into government agencies and enterprises.

This content is made possible by Red Hat; it is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Nextgov's editorial staff.