The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that, while the US ‘Cloud First’ enterprise project is making tangible progress, there are seven cloud lessons for the public sector.

The report, subtitled “progress made but future cloud computing efforts should be better planned”, charts the progress of Cloud First – a federal policy which exhorts agencies to find a cloud-based IT solution whenever logistically possible.

Things appear to have moved forward since 2010, when the GAO previously warned about the difficulties associated with federal cloud management.

Back in May 2010, the accountability office found that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the White House hadn’t even developed a cloud strategy.

But it appears there is still work to be done.

Research as recently as October 2011 found that 22 out of 24 major federal agencies were either “concerned or very concerned” about security risks in the cloud …