HP launches government cloud lab

Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday officially launched its G-Cloud Theatre, a cloud computing lab to demonstrate cloud computing possibilities to government and public sector customers.

HP said its cloud computing lab, based in Bristol, England, is based on HP Labs intellectual property. Vendors are working diligently to show government customers cloud computing as a way to get an IT do-over. IBM also recently launched a bevy of cloud services for government agencies and municipalities.

The main thrust for the G-Cloud Theatre is to allay fears about security. In a nutshell, G-Cloud deploys virtual machines to monitor peers. Any high utilization or changes in output triggers automated responses. Depending on the rules installed, servers can be cloned, restricted, restarted or shut down.

In a nutshell, HP's aim is to portray G-Cloud as a self-healing system.