https://cloud.gov/docs/overview/what-is-cloudgov/ is the key page. Seems like they want to have a centralized place where they do the PaaS work across the govt. Let’s see if this ends up being more or less cost effective than what contractors deploy to GovCloud today.
Recharging to a private company from a central gov entity is not new, and usually solves a non-technical problem.
In this case (and the same in Australia, UK, Canada) it will be cost of procurement. Ie individual departments have to negotiate (and maintain) a contract. Providing a generic platform (Cloud Foundry, k8s, whatever) on top means that small products from individual entities can get built/deployed without each project having to do a tender to negotiate Heroku or similar.
Likewise, getting a .gov (or .gov.uk or .gov.au, etc) is a big hassle, and with a PaaS you can make the experience a lot better
(not in use any more but you can see what it looked like: https://github.com/cloud-gov/cf-domain-broker)
Ie the goal is to reduce the time/steps/approvals required to get a gov website up and running, and cloud.gov in this current incarnation was started under the Obama admin.
Good idea in theory, having a big gov contract with high volume and reduced rates instead of every ministry negotiating with CSPs, with standardised setup. Harder to execute in practice, how much to charge, what costs are subsidised across differing budgets
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