Feds Raise Data Center Consolidation Goals

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget revealed new goals for federal data center consolidation today. By 2012, 472 data centers will be shuttered, a 27 percent increase over the 373 that was previously announced in July.

In addition, by 2015, 962 data centers will be closed, up from the original goal of 800, according to federal CIO Steven VanRoekel. He said the initial 500 sq. ft. mark that was used to identify potential data centers for consolidation has changed — even the smallest locations are now potential targets.

“I basically told the team when I came on board, that I wanted to scope it so everything was game,” VanRoekel said. “We should be looking for efficiencies from everything from wiring closets to these very large data centers across the government. As we drive the effort, consistent with the Vice President’s effort to cut waste, we have to look in every corner.”

VanRoekel said that he expects the 962 number to grow and with the new size criteria and scope, the total number of federal data centers is “coming in close to 2,800.”

The additional 162 data center closures by 2015 will further increase savings. Instead of $3 billion, VanRoekel now expects roughly $5 billion to be saved when the project concludes.

Details Here

first published week of:   10/10/2011

Feds Want Über Cybersecurity Compliance Standard

Tired of regulators from three or four federal agencies auditing your network security compliance every year? A congressional task force recommends a super–standard that would cut the number of annual audits back to just one.

If adopted, the proposal would consolidate federal cybersecurity mandates issued by disparate agencies into a single set of standards that would satisfy all of their requirements. Businesses would require a single audit that would satisfy all requirements, according to the House Republican Cybersecurity Task Force, which released its recommendations.

The group notes that Sarbanes–Oxley, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and Graham–Leach–Bliley all impose security requirements. “A company would be encouraged to implement stronger security standards by allowing it to save money and time by avoiding multiple audits from multiple regulators,” the task force says.

The task force was set up in June by House Speaker John Boehner in part to respond to the Obama administration's proposed cybersecurity legislation, delivered to Congress in May. Regulatory compliance has become the bane of CIOs and CISOs, sapping their budgets to the point where some say they can afford to do little else but meet the regulations to the satisfaction of auditors.

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first published week of:   10/10/2011

Fee hikes sought to balance Danville budget
Gis information, maps and other data available from the city's Information Technology will rise

Instituting some new fees, and raising others, will help balance the city’s 2012 budget, according to Danville City Manager Joe King.

In addition to eliminating bus-stop-to-bus-stop Reserve a Ride service and raising the price of door-to-door service from $3 to $4, the city also wants to raise fees for information technology, fire, police, cemetery, vacant building, rental housing inspection and sanitation services.

Geographic information system information, maps and other data available from the city’s Information Technology will rise, some items for minor amounts (a black-and-white map will go from $1 to $2) while other services will see significant increases, such as a GIS-provided ortho-mosaic of the entire city that was free will now cost $2,500.

Sanitation services call for eliminating backyard pickup, though that service would still be available for the elderly or disabled for an additional $10 a week.

Details Here

first published week of:   05/23/2011

Flint Waters Named Wyoming’s New CIO

Flint Waters, Wyoming’s new state CIO, comes with a measure of celebrity.

The police investigator and former chief of Wyoming’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force is known for making software that identifies computers trading child pornography on file-sharing networks.

The program has been used by thousands of police investigators across the nation as the basis for prosecutions, according to a USA Today feature story on Waters’ software and the pervasiveness of child porn in the U.S. In three years of work, Waters had found more than 600,000 computers containing the illegal pornography, only a small percentage of what’s thought to be online.

Waters was a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show in a 2008 segment about online sex crimes. He is listed online as a programmer for TLO, a data-mining engine for research and investigations.

Details Here

first published week of:   05/09/2011

Florida and Michigan Go Google to Achieve Simple and Powerful Communication and Collaboration

Rochester Hills, Michigan, and Panama City, Florida, implemented Google Apps to improve their communications and dramatically reduce costs. These cities faced the same challenges that you do: declining budgets, pressure for services, and the high cost of a do-it-yourself hardware infrastructure. Kevin Krajewski of Rochester Hills reported that the city is very happy with the results and is already $50,000 closer to balancing their budget.

Making the switch to cloud-based email, applications, and collaboration is simpler than ever, and it delivers major benefits. The results achieved by these cities are compelling: no more requests for mailbox increases, no need to upgrade aging hardware, and better informed constituents. According to Richard Ferrick from Panama City, “Google Apps has freed our IT team from maintaining email servers and updating websites to focus on important transparency initiatives.”

Join Government Technology and the Center for Digital Government for a live, interactive webinar to discuss government’s move into the cloud, March 29, 2011 - 11:00AM PDT / 2:00PM EDT.

Details Here

first published week of:   03/21/2011

Florida Changing How IT Security Incidents Are Reported

The Florida state government’s Office of Information Security (OIS) is developing a management program that will allow state agencies and individuals to report security incidents based on a ranked scale of severity.

With the tool, which will be in Microsoft SharePoint, state agencies will be able to log security incidents by ranking them on a 0 to 3 scale, with three being the most severe, said Security Outreach Coordinator Amy Caldeira of the OIS.

“If the power went out for 30 minutes, it’s a zero. If the power went out and your customers could not get to their services for a length of time, it’s a one because you affected the access to the data,” Caldeira said. “If you were breached to a point to where the data was available publicly, that’s definitely a three.”

The Office of Information Security (OIS), within the state’s Agency for Enterprise Information Technology, plans to fully implement the program by August.

Currently when an incident is reported, agencies e-mail or call the OIS, leaving OIS personnel to analyze the incident and log the information themselves. Caldeira said agencies are legally obligated to report all security incidents to the OIS, but the new program leaves deciphering the incident to the agencies.

By logging the incidents, the state will be able to track where each agency stands in its risk assessment. Having the ranked incident reports will help the state determine what types of training needs to be provided to agencies, as well as determine what other areas need concentration, Caldeira said.

Details Here

first published week of:   06/27/2011

Volume 31

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