Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel speaks with InformationWeek Government Editor John Foley at Thursday’s event.
Having launched a formal strategy on the concept yesterday, federal CIO Steven VanRoekel offered examples Thursday morning of how shared IT services will free up valuable resources across government agencies. Keep reading →
Mobile technology has joined cybersecurity, controlling costs, human capital and central agency policy on the list of top concerns that keep federal chief information officers awake at night, according to a newly-released survey of federal chief information officers released today by the trade group TechAmerica.
Based on in-depth interviews with more than 40 federal CIOs and their deputies, the latest annual survey finds that cybersecurity ranks as the Number 1 concern for CIOs this year, even as budget constraints now dictate how CIOs are moving forward to meet agency IT demands. Keep reading →
COMMENTARY: Yesterday Todd Park, Federal CTO, used Twitter to answers questions about “big data”. Well sort of because while it reportedly generated 413 tweets, reaching an audience of 3.5 million, I counted only 131 actual questions, only 9 actual answers, and 7 retweets – so it really was a big data event with small results like so many these days.
Ironic, given the point of all of this health data activity by Todd Park and his predecessor, Aneesh Chopra, was to release lots of government data (big and small) to foster innovation investment and job growth.
Keep reading →
Former Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, speaking in his new role as an executive for Salesforce.com, told the IT community today that powerful social networking applications are helping organizations interact with employees and customers in new dimensions, spurring a worldwide social enterprise revolution.
Kundra, who served as master of ceremonies for a two-hour presentation at a cloud computing event in Washington, D.C., showed an audience of about 2,000 gathered at the Washington Convention Center how leading corporations are incorporating applications that tap into a variety of social networking platforms to engage employees and customers. Keep reading →
Todd Park, the newly-appointed U.S. Chief Technology Officer for the White House, will attempt to address questions about Big Data in 140 characters or less during a live Twitter chat scheduled today at 2. p.m ET.
The 30-minute Twitter chat is expected to give Park an opportunity to highlight the White House’s new Big Data Research and Development Initiative, and more specifically, efforts supporting the use of big data in the health sector. Keep reading →
In a technology-driven world, applications take center stage, running our personal lives (e.g. think iPhone and iPad), our businesses and our government. Indeed, according to research firm IDC – the government spent about $8 billion last year on software apps. And according to application usage management specialist Flexera Software – anywhere from 5-30% of that $8 billion (up to $2.4 billion) was likely wasted. Wasted on misunderstood license entitlements, wasted on shelfware because it wasn’t used or needed in the first place, or wasted on inefficient processes and high deployment costs.
As the government scrambles to cut federal spending in increasingly contentious budget hearings, finding the “low hanging fruit” that both parties can readily agree on – is a no brainer. Private enterprises have long understood that application usage management – which includes application readiness and enterprise license optimization — is critical. And it’s time for the government to follow suit and acknowledge the billions of dollars of waste hidden within its software budget – and do something about it. Keep reading →
The Homeland Security Department plans to migrating to mobile devices and advance information sharing as part of updates to law enforcement technology, Federal Computer Week has reported.
CIO Richard Spires said the department has set up a joint program office for law enforcement agents to swap tactical radios (such as the one pictured above) for modern smart phones within five years. Keep reading →
When it comes to big data and high public demand, the cloud can be a federal agency’s salvation.
That’s what the National Archives and Records Administration learned during the recent and long-anticipated 1940 census launch — the largest-ever release of publicly available data in the federal government. Keep reading →
Federal CIOs say agencies and government contractors must become completely familiar with FedRAMP security controls and how they relate to each agency prior to the cloud computing service program’s launch this summer.
Richard Spires, CIO of the Department of Homeland Security, was one of several CIOs who spoke about FedRAMP at a trade group breakfast Friday. He told the packed breakfast meeting that contractors and agencies alike have to remember that FedRAMP is “not just an optional thing we can elect to do,” it’s mandatory. Keep reading →
A cloud environment came to the rescue to expand capacity and speed up access for the National Archives and Records Administration this week as part of a contingency plan that can be used by any federal agency anticipating a big demand for huge amounts of data from the IRS to the Department of Agriculture.
This incident, spawned by the 1940 Census records release online April 2, underscores the importance and flexibility of cloud computing. Keep reading →