Dive Brief:
- US CIO Tony Scott says the federal government is going through a "transformative time" as it moves to a more tech-friendly model.
- Scott is pushing federal agencies to deploy scalable cloud services and design more modern workflow and case management processes.
- Scott said cloud and other technological advances will dramatically impact the CIO role.
Dive Insight:
Tony Scott, U.S. CIO, speaking during a Google for Work webcast, said he’s pushing agencies to improve security and to move to cloud, since many of the major cloud providers already meet requirements around federal data security standards.
"I think today the better bet is get to the cloud as quick as you can because you're guaranteed almost to have better security there than you will in any private thing you can do," Scott said.
Scott also said he believes cloud will dramatically impact the CIO role.
"It's not good enough just to be somebody who's smart about how to develop, install systems or manage applications. I think the [CIO] role is evolving also to be a developer of talent … I think that's one of the really big changes going on in the CIO seat these days,” he said.
The federal government adopted its cloud first initiative five years ago, but some say the transition is still in its early stages. Scott recently said the federal government spend 80% of its IT budget on maintenance of legacy systems.
