In the next phase of that strategy, which began with preliminary moves toward commercial cloud services and applications in the first year of the Obama administration, followed by a "cloud-first" mandate for all new government IT projects that was announced in November 2010, the General Services Administration is seeking to streamline use of the new technologies across departments and agencies engaging cloud brokerage services.

On Thursday, the GSA hosted members of industry here at its office just outside Washington to explain its agenda in looking to cloud brokers, which would serve as something like systems integrators (the GSA does not like the term "middleman"), or liaisons between a government agency and a cloud service provider.

"We're looking for a comprehensive service that can provide federal agencies with whatever they need -- infrastructure, platform, software -- a true brokerage model," said Stan Kaczmarczk, director of the GSA's cloud program management office. "It's one that will allow the federal government to take advantage of the pay-as-you-go [model]."

The GSA has issued a (RFI) -- a preliminary step in the procurement process ahead of a request for proposals -- soliciting advice from industry members about how the cloud-brokerage model could be tailored to serve the needs of government.

The GSA originally set a deadline of Aug. 17 for responses, but Kazcmarczk said that the agency will push that date back and announce a new deadline shortly.