U.S. Customs cautiously jumps on cloud

U.S. Customs cautiously jumps on cloud    While cloud computing, or the ability to access information from the Internet via servers no matter the user's location, can help customs administrations shrink their information technology budgets and speed up systems implementation, concerns with security, privacy and sovereignty of data exchanges keep those development efforts in slow gear.
   'We see it as the vision for the future,' said Charles R. Armstrong, chief information officer for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, at the World Customs Organization's IT Conference and Exhibition in Seattle Wednesday. 'But we have a lot to hammer out to actually reach that point.'
   Last year, the Obama administration instituted a 'cloud first' policy for future technology implementation across federal agencies. This move is expected to save the U.S. government billions of dollars in IT development.
   At the Department of Homeland Security, CBP's parent, there's already an effort underway to rationalize 45 data centers and numerous small field IT desks across the department into two locations. This will be followed by the implementation of good governance and best practices. It's estimated that CBP alone manages the exchange of 30 billion messages daily with other federal agencies and the industry.

Armstrong

   'If we can do these things we'll really transform the way we do business and the way we operate at the Department of Homeland Security' said Richard A. Spires, the department's CIO.

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   'It's a cultural change for us, but I believe it's one that we can work through,' he added.
   Because it manages sensitive export and import information for trade and national security purposes, CBP plans to develop a highly secure private cloud. This cloud will share information in real time among customs officers, partner agencies and potentially overseas governments.

Spires

   According to IT industry experts, there are also opportunities in the customs space to develop more open public/private clouds to improve the efficiency of sharing data between customs administrations and the shipping industry.
   With some basic controls, such as instituting subscription or membership access, customs administrations could use public/private clouds to publish their tariff information, facilitate communication with industry participants in authorized supply chains (secure trade lanes), and share beneficial risk management details, explained Norbert Kouwenhoven, executive partner for IBM Business Solutions.
   British Customs, for example, recently published its tariff on the Web, and has noticed a 60 percent reduction in tariff-related calls from shippers to its help desk.
   Over time, CBP expects to move less sensitive customs information to public clouds.
   'We're dipping our toe in the public cloud,' Spires said. 'We can't be so insular that we're hurting ourselves, but we have to put the right practices in place.' ' Chris Gillis