According to Signal Online, “Over the next several months, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) will partner with Google to learn how to implement critical security capabilities in a cloud computing environment. The pilot program, involving selected members of DISA’s staff, will explore how the U.S. Defense Department will implement security when it begins to offer cloud computing services to the military in the future.”

This effort is a result of the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) signed between DISA and Google last February.  The goal of CRADA is to find ways that will make cloud computing secure for the DOD, including basic authentication services.

The results of this effort should be interesting, considering that the government, specifically, the DOD, is hugely paranoid about cloud-platform security.  Even if the research arising from this report is compelling, the adoption of cloud computing by the DOD could still continue at a snail’s pace.  It’s not the value of the technology at issue, but control and governance that seem to be the main hindrance.