NASA's Nebula cloud begins hosting USASpending.gov today

Starting today, USAspending.gov will move the cloud.

Linda Cureton, NASA chief information officer, says the Office of Management and Budget is moving the site to NASA Ames Research Center's cloud computer infrastructure called Nebula.

Cureton told the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Jane Norris this morning that "fortunately or unfortunately [Nebula] has moved out the pilot stage very quickly and it's supporting USASpending.gov. I think they go into production today."

OMB created USAspending.gov at the behest of Congress. The Obama-Coburn bill, or the Federal Financial Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA), required OMB develop a site to list and make searchable all contract and grant awards.

The General Services Administration's Federal Acquisition Service had contracted with a vendor to host the site, according to former government officials with knowledge of USAspending.gov. The officials requested anonymity because they did not get approval to speak on behalf of their new companies.

This would be the second major governmentwide site to move its infrastructure support to the cloud. GSA moved USA.gov to a public platform earlier this year.

NASA Ames launched Nebula Sept. 16--the same day OMB launched Apps.gov, the cloud storefront.

Ames's goal with Nebula is to eventually offer infrastructure-, software- and platform-as-a-service on a public/private cloud. NASA says the platform offers a high capacity computing, storage and network connectivity that lets users do rapid development of secure Web applications.

Cureton says NASA initially thought Nebula would run as a pilot for some time so its scientists could test it out.

Cureton also says NASA's big infrastructure support services contract, known as I3P, is undergoing a management review.

"I want to make sure we move forward and meet the goals as stated in terms of our original expectations," she says. "Right now I'm looking at how we are managing it, looking at the cost benefit, determining what our return on investment will be and looking for any risks associated with it to make sure this program is a success. It's a wonderful opportunity to improve how we manage IT at the agency. And opportunities like that don't come too often. I want to make sure when we do it, it will be successful."

Cureton became NASA CIO Sept. 21 after spending more than three years as the NASA Goddard CIO.

NASA had expected to issue final solicitations for these give contracts June 15, according to NASA I3P Web site, with awards by Dec. 31. But that timetable has been dramatically pushed back. One industry source says there is some doubt whether the contract will even happen at all.

Under the contract, NASA is consolidating support services for its desktops, data centers, enterprise application services technology, integrated communications services and Web enterprise services.

I3P is estimated to be worth $4.2 billion.

Cureton expects to finish the first phase of her assessment early next week, and then come up with a notional schedule and let industry know the space agency's plans.

She would not speculate on when final awards would be made.

NASA also will participate in another governmentwide initiative around insourcing.

"We will participate in a pilot that OMB is having about how we should enter that," she says. "Of course we will have budget constraints in terms of the federal FTE level we are allowed to have. So we will have to meet the President's priorities relative to that."

She adds NASA needs to identity what the right skills to buy versus the right skills to have in-house. Cureton says that is true for all NASA does, whether it's IT, engineering or science or building spacecraft.

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On the Web:

NASA Ames - Nebula

FederalNewsRadio - OMB launches cloud storefront, Apps.gov

FederalNewsRadio - NASA delays release of multi-billion dollar tech contract

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