More than a year ago, agencies were ordered to begin shuttering hundreds of data centers and move government applications to the cloud under the administration’s information technology reform plan.
As of last fall, agencies had moved 40 services to the cloud and terminated 50 legacy systems.
Transportation Department Chief Information Officer Nitin Pradhan announced a program last November called IT Vital Signs, which was created to set consistent performance metrics for cybersecurity , IT investments and departmentwide initiatives like data center consolidation. The department has committed to closing at least 42 of its data centers by 2015.
“Stakeholder engagement is really at the heart of the DOT IT Reform Plan, and I believe one of the keys to its success so far at DOT,” Pradhan said in a blog post on cio.gov.
Pradhan was honored last week by the Government Technology Research Alliance (GTRA) for his work in executing the Office of Management and Budget’s IT reform plan. Several public and private sector executives and companies, including Army’s deputy CIO Mike Krieger and Apptis, were recognized by the nonprofit organization. GTRA focuses on improving government information technology through forums, workshops and other means.
Pradhan is also testing a program to reduce spending that federal CIO Steven VanRoekel has said he is considering expanding governmentwide.
Transportation has an online catalog of its IT applications and services, similiar to Amazon.com, and users can rate the performance of the technology. Based on user feedback and other analytics, such as usage rates, the agency decides whether to cut funding for low-performing IT applications and systems.
“We don’t typically do that in government,” VanRoekel said. “[But] it is definitely something we have to do – drive out the old in favor of promoting the new.”
