Today at FOSE: Cloud Computing Wargame Kicks Off
March 10 – Visitors to FOSE will be able to follow the cloud computing wargame as it evolves on plasma screens at Booz Allen's booth.
The players participating in Booz Allen Hamilton’s annual wargames at FOSE this year will get the chance to test strategies for using cloud computing to meet their agencies’ needs–a low-risk way to see whether using the Internet to provide web-based applications, platforms, and services can deliver on its potential for lowering costs and improving collaboration among huge communities of interest.
The game’s objectives are straightforward: to provide an introduction to the concept of cloud computing, to understand the benefits and risks of this approach to IT, and, within the game itself, to explore the different strategies in mixing cloud computing with more traditional IT acquisition and operating methods.
This will not be an easy game to master, however.
The “pit” at the Booz Allen booth will feature six tables running at a time, with six to eight players at each table. A table comprises one team; the competition pits the tables against each other, as a master croupier imposes new constraints to which all the teams must respond.
Each table will have its own set of IT tasks to fulfill. A team has to devise a strategy for allocating its chips among the dozens of responsibilities all IT managers face in the real world, such as server capacities, continuity of operations plans, the skills mix of the workforce, and levels of technical support. The twist here is how much to use “traditional” solutions to meet these needs (buying more servers, for instance) and how much to blend in cloud computing solutions, whether customized or commercially available.
Interest in the topic of cloud computing is running so high, the seven sessions planned over the three-day show already have been filled.
To reach a broader audience, camera crews will capture the play at every table; visitors to FOSE will be able to follow the action on plasma screens at the Booz Allen booth, with three remote feeds to other spots around the trade show.
The croupiers running the wargames learned nuances of strategy and tactics by playing for several hours. It doesn’t hurt that they are drawn from the ranks of companies, such as Google and IBM, which are already invested in cloud computing.
Watch this space each day during FOSE, to catch a recap of the day's actions and read what players learn.
story posted March 10, 2009
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