Earlier this month, OMB Director Jacob Lew released a memorandum for the heads of all Federal Departments and Agencies, which focused on four areas for which all Federal Chief Information Officers (CIOs) have authority and “a lead role”: Governance, Commodity IT, Program Management, and Information Security.  The Memorandum further reinforced responsibilities of the Federal CIO Council to manage the Federal IT portfolio across agency boundaries.

Last week our guest blogger, Johnny Barnes, Public Sector Chief Technology Officer, shared with us some of the benefits and cost savings agencies can achieve through application consolidation.

Agencies facing increasingly challenging fiscal environments are looking for ways to make each dollar go further. The interagency councils for “chief officers” are no exception!  In fact, they found that a move toward cost efficiencies is also leading to greater collaboration. The interagency councils were created by Congress over the past 20 years to foster cross-agency coordination, collaboration and idea sharing. The councils formed under the aegis of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)  include:

President Obama has made private sector innovation a centerpiece of the Administration’s agenda for growth and job creation.  This is a subject that has broad support across the spectrum:  citizens, businesses and governments all look to commercial activity as an economic engine; new technologies play a key role in this pursuit.  The Nation’s Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra, has been a very visible leader of this activity, with frequent and recent blogs through the White House and media web sites (

Faster, better decision-making is needed through reduced learning curves and creating a collaborative environment. These goals have led to the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (or DCCI, February 26, 2010).  Near-term projects will focus on reducing cost, improving IT security, and shifting investments into more efficient computing platforms and technologies.

Key principles include:  reducing the number of data centers by at least 800 by 2015; adopting a “cloud first” program that requires agencies to determine three opportunities to move support to the cloud; developing career paths for government IT management; and reforming review and guidance bodies, like the IRB, CIO Council, and TechStat process. Procurement reform and contract vehicle changes are also components of the reform.

Harvey Koeppel is Executive Director of the Center for CIO Leadership. In this capacity, Harvey sets the Center’s strategy and directs internaland external operations. He also serves as Chairman of the Center’s Advisory Committee.

Mr. David M. Wennergren serves as the Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer (DON CIO). Reporting directly to the Secretary of the Navy, he provides top-level advocacy in the development and use of information management/information technology (IM/IT) and creation of a unified IM/IT vision for the Navy - Marine Corps team. He develops strategies, policies, plans, architectures, standards, guidance, and process reinvention support for the entire Department of the Navy.

In the corporate world, and throughout the federal government, information is a very valuable asset. Having timely access to this information, and using it to inform strategic decision making, have become critical in today’s competitive, networked, and interconnected world.  Information technology (IT) plays a  central role in making this happen.  We spoke with Dr. Robert D.

To date, telemedicine has largely been seen as futuristic. Well, the future is here. Advances in sensor technology, wireless networks, mobile monitoring devices, and telecommunications have all made it possible to address the increasingly dire shortage of healthcare professionals in rural areas. There are approximately 60 million Americans living in rural or frontier areas, and the average age of physicians practicing in these areas is over 55 years. In fact, in over one-quarter of the counties in the United States, there are no practicing physicians.