The General Services Administration is considering a procurement for tablet computers that meet federal security standards and can easily integrate with various email platforms like Google and Microsoft Outlook. GSA issued a request for information to vendors this week for tablet computers that are manufactured by U.S.-based small businesses and meet federal encryption standards set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. “The General Services has received many statements of interest from customers within the agency and across government for tablet computers,” GSA said in the RFI posted on fbo.gov. Vendors have until Feb. 20 to respond. Vendors are asked to include…
Browsing: Information Technology
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…
The nation’s first federal chief technology officer is leaving his post, the White House announced Friday. “As the federal government’s first Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra did groundbreaking work to bring our government into the 21st century,” President Obama said in a statement. “Aneesh found countless ways to engage the American people using technology, from electronic health records for veterans, to expanding access to broadband for rural communities, to modernizing government records.” Chopra is considering running for lieutenant governor of Virginia, and he has been in conversations with influential political figures and donors, said a democratic official familiar with the situation, who…
The Department of the Navy has already taken steps to reduce information technology costs and cut its overall business IT budget by $2 billion over the next five years. Data center consolidation and greater scrutiny of IT purchases like mobile devices and software are expected to cut costs, said Chief Information Officer Terry Halvorsen in an interview. “That money has been taken out of those lines for accounting that would support buying those services,” Halvorsen said. “We’re beginning the execution in 2012,” but the savings run from 2013 to 2017. Following Halvorsen’s orders, both services have appointed a so-called Information Technology Expenditure Approval…
A proposed 4G network by wireless broadband firm LightSquared would cause harmful interference to Global Positioning System devices, according to the government organization that deals with GPS matters. LightSquared’s original and modified plan to mitigate interference to GPS receivers would be harmful to “many” of them, federal officials on the National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing, said in a letter Friday. The letter to the administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) was in response to the agency’s request for further tests of LightSquared’s proposed mobile network. NTIA is responsible for advising the president on telecommunications and information…
The State Department’s top security chief is leaving his post to oversee a newly created cybersecurity division at the Department of Homeland Security. John Streufert will replace Nicole Dean as director of DHS’ National Cyber Security Division on Jan. 17, where he will be tasked to build and maintain an “effective cyberspace response system” and implement a program for protecting critical infrastructure, DHS’ Roberta Stempfley said in an email Friday to employees within the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications. Streufert will also work to strengthen DHS’ partnerships with the private sector and international organizations. “Although Nicole is leaving rather large shoes…
Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel announced Wednesday that he will release a new mobility strategy by mid-March to speed up federal adoption of mobile technologies and strategies. For now, the administration is engaging the public through an online dialogue to generate best practices and ideas. Anyone can submit ideas to be considered. One issue the new strategy will address is the creation of contracting vehicles for agencies to more easily purchase mobile technology, VanRoekel told reporters. The strategy will also address how to: ● Improve delivery of government information, products, and services through technologies, including those that are mobile…
The military services and Defense Department agencies have until Jan. 15 to detail how they will reduce the number of commercial and government applications running in their data centers, under requirements of the 2012 Defense Authorization Act that President Obama signed last month. The law adds to pressure the department already faces under administration orders that DoD and other agencies close at least 1,200 data centers by 2015. DoD has committed to closing 61 of its more than 770 centers this year. Under the Defense Authorization Act, DoD must also develop a strategy to move its data and services from…
Industry and government information technology executives want more from their new employees. Chief information officers are looking for workers with business skills and an understanding of cloud computing, social media, analytics and other emerging technology, according to research conducted by market intelligence firm International Data Corp. CIOs are concerned about a lack of IT talent to manage their next generation systems, said David McNally, an IT executive adviser at IDC. The data was extracted from IDC’s CIO Agenda Survey conducted last month and presented during a webinar on Tuesday. Of the 63 CIOs surveyed, 43 percent said new IT workers will…
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expects to cut its current email costs in half by moving 25,000 users to Google’s cloud email. NOAA began migrating email boxes for employees, contractors and associates from in-house servers to Google Apps cloud email and collaboration system in June and completed the transition in December, according to a Google blog post. The work was completed under an $11.5 million, three-year contract to Earth Resources Technologies, Inc. in partnership with Google, Unisys and Tempus Nova. NOAA has the largest number of cloud email users in the federal government. Last year, the General Services Administration migrated 17,000 users…