The concept of cloud computing received a big pat on the back this afternoon.  Vivek Kundra, the CIO of the USA, announced the launch of Apps.gov, a storefront designed to help federal agencies research and buy cloud-based solutions.

Kundra explained in a White House Blog post, "Cloud computing is the next generation of IT in which data and applications will be housed centrally and accessible anywhere and anytime by a various devices (this is opposed to the current model where applications and most data is housed on individual devices).  By consolidating available services, Apps.gov is a one-stop source for cloud services - an innovation that not only can change how IT operates, but also save taxpayer dollars in the process."

What's interesting (and makes this story more relevant to the search engine industry), though, is that some taxpayer dollars may now make their way to Google.  Google is one of the service providers that were allowed into the Apps.gov store, and in response, it's taking a couple of steps.

First, Google's attempting to make sure that Google Apps is authorized to operate under the Federal Information Security Management Act.  Second, the search giant intends to create a dedicated cloud for government customers.  (Matthew Glotzbach, Google's Enterprise's director of product management, gave more details on the Google Public Policy Blog if you're interested.)

Accomplishing these things and securing the U.S. government as a customer would obviously represent a huge victory for Google.