Continue the Kundra mission of user first IT

So where does the government go from here? Whoever is named the successor to Kundra cannot take their foot off the gas. For the first time ever, the US government has the possibility to show the world “what’s possible” when it comes to research. There will be some challenges to come for Federal IT between CIOs however that doesn’t mean the brakes will be put on. Life goes on when all is said and done should the modernization of the Federal government.

The same passion for change

Whoever replaces Vivek Kundra needs to have the same passion for change and technological advancement that he did. To my mind, cloud needs to be one of the primary initiatives to the continued advancement of Federal IT. One piece of advice to the incoming CIO although is to leverage vendors that are willing to partner with them to make a smooth transition to the straightway stage of IT, particularly in the area of cloud and networking which is the foundation of the consumerized enterprise.

Post Kundra’s departure, I had a chance to speak with Stephen Wallo, a Federal Systems Engineer for Brocade who has a significant presence in providing networking solutions in the Federal sector. We discussed how Brocade could act as a partner to the new, incoming CIO and these were his comments:

“The migration to cloud computing is not going to slow down, nevertheless there are some obstacles. One such obstacle is that enterprises and government agencies are unsure where to begin and how to simplify the migration. I feel that one of the best ways to assist in the migration of IT services to the cloud and to tap the unlimited market potential of cloud computing is to educate the IT community on this new architectural approach. The greatest possibility to each of us lies is creating education programs that enhances the skill set of the IT community.” - Stephen Wallo, Federal Systems Engineer.