IBM unveils government IT framework

IBM has released its Government Industry Framework, a combination of software and services targeting the federal, state and local space, reports Channel Insider.

The framework aims to provide a standards-based industry platform for IBM customers and partners for building and deploying public sector applications for tax and revenue planning, homeland security and safety, health and human services, transportation and urban planning and management.

Applications built on the framework will incorporate and leverage IBM's complete line of software, server and storage products, the company says.

The Federal Railroad Administration, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the State Department are aligning enterprise architecture (EA) strategies with the development of social-networking tools, states Government Computer News.

Enterprise architecture is now a meta-context for the integration of strategic, business and technology planning and decision-making through common governance, says Scott Bernard, deputy CIO and director of the office of information and technology at the Federal Railroad Administration.

Enterprise architecture enables social networking and Web 2.0 technology insertion by providing standards for the design of new workflow that comes with social networking, he adds.

To help enterprises deal with a growing number of remote workers, cloud-based URL filtering is likely to continue to gain traction, according to eWeek.

Addressing remote and offsite worker security has led some vendors to push a hybrid approach of cloud-based and on-premise technology - something that may gain traction as enterprises look to deal with their mobile workers.

Secure Web gateway, the category URL filtering falls under, has mainly found adopters as a software-as-a-service offering among small and medium enterprises, says Gartner analyst Lawrence Orans, but there has also been a growing adoption among enterprises.