California Searching for a State CIO

What might be the highest-profile job in state government IT remains unfilled, as California continues to seek a state CIO.

The Secretary of California Technology is slated to be paid $175,000 plus full benefits (presumably minus salary cut because of built-in furlough days incurred in recent years by the state government).

The position will be a member of Gov. Jerry Brown’s cabinet, according to a job announcement from the California Technology Agency — formerly known as the Office of the State Chief Information Officer. The position is open until filled.

The state’s next CIO will be tasked with directing technology strategy for all government agencies, departments and offices across the state. The state government employs at least 8,000 workers in IT, including about 130 agency CIOs.

Details Here

first published week of:   03/07/2011

Can fiscal 2012 budget balance cuts and new IT programs?

Despite slight increases in the fiscal 2012 federal IT budget requests from most civilian agencies, the primary budget driver is cost savings, according to a new assessment from the immixGroup’s Market Intelligence organization.

Agencies are emphasizing value measurement, process improvement, elimination of redundancy and duplication, and the adoption of new technologies to improve operations, the survey found.

Although continuing resolutions and ongoing budget cuts will have an impact, most federal IT spending requests are slightly ahead of 2011 levels, with buying trends expected to emphasize cybersecurity, cloud computing/virtualization and telework/mobile computing.

The 2012 Federal IT budget request is approximately $80.9 billion up from the $78.8 billion IT budget in 2011.

For 2012, 52 percent of the request is for the civilian sector and 48 percent is for defense. In part, because of the significant risks associated with mobile computing and cloud–based applications, cybersecurity will continue to top federal IT technology trends, the survey said.

Details Here

first published week of:   10/24/2011

City to deploy GIS technology

Ten years from now, city of Napa employees will likely ask themselves how they ever did their jobs without the new mapping technology that is coming their way.

The Napa City Council unanimously approved a contract this week with a geographic information system (GIS) company that will enable the city to map the exact location of every manhole cover, utility pole, water pipe and other asset.

Napa has used mapping software from Esri, based in Redlands, for at least 10 years, primarily in the engineering and public works departments, said Scott Nielsen, the city’s information technology services manager. The city has paid about $15,000 annually.

Now the city plans to use the software for all of its operations at a cost of about $55,000 in each of the next three years.

“That software will go enterprise wide,” Nielsen said. “It will be on every laptop in every vehicle that is out in the field, it will be on iPhones, Droids, it is what everyone sees in the field as well as in the repository back in (the information technology department).”

The mapping data will serve as the framework for the city’s asset management software system, which will be developed after the assets are located, Nielsen said. Then, the coordinates of any given asset will be available in one place.

Details Here

first published week of:   10/10/2011

Cloud Computing Remains Out of Reach for Most Government Agencies

The public sector has been slower to embrace cloud computing than the private sector. But there have been few statistical comparisons available of adoption rates, leaving the IT industry to wonder just how much further along corporations are in moving to the cloud.

According to a new survey released Tuesday, June 1, by computer processor developer AMD, 42 percent of private-sector organizations are operating on some level in the cloud, while 23 percent of public-sector organizations are doing the same.

Why the disparity? AMD executives told Government Technology there are a few factors in play. One is a lack of in-house cloud computing expertise within government agencies. Seventy-five percent of responding public-sector entities said they didn’t have the IT skills in place internally to support a cloud environment. Furthermore, 43 percent of the public sector currently using the cloud admitted they didn’t have the necessary skills yet either.

Details Here

first published week of:   06/06/2011

Congress Backs Energy Agency

Two years after it was created the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) is receiving support within Congress as a way to address concerns about energy security, the economy, and national security. While Congress contemplates major cuts in many programs, Republicans and Democrats in the House have voted to increase funding for the agency above current levels.

ARPA-E is meant to fund risky energy-research projects—ones that are unlikely to get initial funding any other way but have the potential to have a big impact. For example, they might seek to make solar power as cheap as fossil-fuel-based power or to give electric vehicles a range and a cost comparable to those of gasoline-powered cars.

Despite substantial bipartisan support for the agency when it was created, ARPA-E received no funding until April 2009, when it was awarded $400 million as part of the Recovery Act. It has yet to receive any substantial funding under the regular budget. But now a House continuing resolution bill for keeping the government running this year, which features large cuts in discretionary spending, includes a $50 million boost for the agency.

The increase is about a 10th of what President Obama asked for in his 2012 budget, but it is a marked exception to the spending reductions in the bill. ARPA-E has moved quickly over the last two years, funding 121 projects, many in response to workshops with experts aimed at identifying critical areas of research. The agency’s choices have met with mixed reviews.

Details Here

first published week of:   02/28/2011

Connecticut CIO Mark Raymond Expected to Upgrade IT Systems

Mark Raymond has been appointed state CIO by Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. Raymond is scheduled to begin leading operations in the Department of Information Technology on June 2.

The state CIO position was formerly held by Diane Wallace, who was appointed in 2005 by then-Gov. Jodi Rell.

Raymond spent more than 20 years in the private sector and has experience serving as a consultant, according to the governor’s office. He’s been involved with projects in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts that focus on finance, payroll, human resources, budgeting, procurement, human services, revenue and transportation.

As a consultant, he worked with the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Highway Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Connecticut Department of Transportation. He most recently served as the project director for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Raymond’s background will help the state update its systems and operate more efficiently, Malloy said.

Details Here

first published week of:   05/30/2011

Volume 31

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