On Jan. 13, the New York State Chief Information Officer and Office for Technology (CIO/OFT) announced a cloud computing technology request for information (RFI) session to be held on Jan. 28, 2010 in Albany.

"With the advent of cloud computing technologies and the efficiencies that come with them, CIO/OFT is rethinking the existing paradigm of a completely private-hosted environment in favor of more innovative solutions," said the announcement.

Possible areas for cloud computing include hosted database management systems, security tools and more complex applications such as human resource management, financial management and case management.

Publicly hosted data centers have the potential to save the state money, help with efficiency and free up valuable space in privately owned data centers. Although security risks and lack of control can be causes for concern, the risk-to-reward ratio must be examined and weighed thoroughly.

Some of the issues to be discussed at the meeting include:

• partnerships between private and public entities to increase efficiency;
• economic impact to state agencies should application switch to public hosting;
• which types of applications would be best suited to be hosted in public clouds; and 
• security tools now emerging as cloud offerings.

Questions regarding this event can be e-mailed to Customer.Relations@cio.ny.gov.