In terms of regulation, IT industry groups have been urging Congress to alone.

Michael Capellas, chairman and CEO of the Virtual Computing Environment Co., said that in terms of government use of cloud, procurement rules should be changed to enable cross collaboration. That could involve, for instance, allowing four agencies to create one cloud rather than each agency doing individual clouds.

is also important, although the private sector will drive most that, the panelists said.

But when it comes to security, "the federal government will help drive the security around protecting information in the cloud," said Nick Combs, federal chief technology officer at EMC.

The White House has adopted a "cloud first" policy, and has estimated that the government can eventually move 25% of its IT spending to the cloud.