10 Developments Show Government Cloud Maturing10 Developments Show Government Cloud Maturing

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Federal agencies are moving beyond their phase one cloud computing initiatives. They're testing and revising different cloud models, types of contracts, and security approaches, among other standard practices.

The Office of Management and Budget lit a fire under federal agencies and departments 18 months ago with its "cloud first" policy. With fed organizations already forced to close hundreds of data centers under the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative, they had little choice.

Much has happened in the past few weeks that points to the 2.0 phase of federal clouds. Following are 10 recent developments with long-term implications.