GSA Cloud Information Center gets design, platform upgrades

The General Services Administration says it has addressed design flaws in its Cloud Information Center that limited its ability to keep agencies informed of new cloud solutions.

Using human-centered design, GSA upgraded the platform its cloud team uses to publish information while also making the CIC accessible to people with disabilities, more uniform in presentation and more secure, the agency said Wednesday.

GSA launched the CIC this time last year to be a central repository connecting agencies with cloud service providers, but the focus back then was on consolidating resources and not user experience.

“Modernization is not static, and neither is the CIC,” said Bill Zielinski, the outgoing assistant commissioner of Information Technology Category at GSA, in the announcement. “The government’s one-stop-shop for all things cloud now offers an enhanced digital experience that organizes complex information from a variety of authoritative sources into a format that is more accessible and digestible.”

The CIC includes a market reasearch-as-a-service tool, training documents and acquisition guidance and templates now on a cleaner interface with more intuitive navigation. Content is reorganized to correspond with the cloud adoption lifecycle.

GSA’s cloud team intends to update the CIC regularly as federal policies, technologies and best practices change. The CIC reflects the Office of Management and Budget‘s Cloud Smart Strategy for migration that meets agencies’ needs.

CIC joins the Centers of Excellence and Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program in using 18F‘s Federalist platform and the U.S. Web Design System for human-centered design.

“The next iteration of the CIC puts people at the center of technology,” John Radziszewski, cloud program manager, in a statement.