The below blog was written by and published with permission by Steve O’Keeffe. Steve O’Keeffe is the founder of MeriTalk –www.meritalk.com – the government IT network. MeriTalk is an online community that hosts professional networking, thought leadership, and focused events to drive the government IT dialogue. A 20-year veteran of the government IT community, O’Keeffe has worked in government and industry. In addition to MeriTalk, he founded Telework Exchange, GovMark Council, and O’Keeffe & Company
OMB OMG
Is Fed IT better after Kundra? Are cloud, data center, and cyber working? Where should Steven VanRoekel focus? As Fed IT makes it through year end, is Dell down and Amazon up? We put these questions and more to the Fed IT community at Innovation Nation on August 23. The new study, Over to You Mr. VanRoekel, gives the new Fed CIO a sense for his inheritance.
Kundra Kritique
Vivek gets a solid B. Seventy-one percent say he made Fed IT better - grading vision as his strong suit. But the “Cloud Kid” scored poorly in operations. Fifty-nine percent said his OMB failed to provide funding to fulfill mandates, 44 percent said it put forth conflicting mandates, and 41 percent faulted Kundra's OMB for setting unrealistic goals/mandates.
Cloud, Consolidation, Cyber Confusion
And, the vision/operations mismatch was a recurring theme. Cloud first - pardon the pun. Ninety-two percent say cloud is good for Fed IT, but only 29 percent are following OMB's mandated Cloud First policy. What are the cloud challenges? Sixty-four percent point to security - where's FedRAMP when you need it? - and 36 percent pointed to culture and budget as major impediments.
Data center consolidation second. Ninety-five percent approve. But, 70 percent say Uncle Sam won't cut 800 by 2015. Of note, 85 percent say there'll be no data center savings without new investment. Need I to get R - what a concept...
Cyber third. Nobody knows who owns Federal cyber security. The voting: other, 35 percent; White House, 14 percent; DHS, 14 percent; OMB, nine percent; don't know, eight percent; industry, eight percent; NSA, six percent; DoD, six percent. Come now, do we need to start a new Department of the Internet?
Please, Mr. VanRoekel
So, the overall take, Fed IT pros are up for change, but a bit fed up and confused - the beatings will continue until morale improves... Speaking to the new Federal CIO, Feds make three wishes. Sixty percent ask OMB to reduce the number of mandates and deconflict. Fifty-three percent ask OMB to reassess goals/timelines to make success attainable. And, 46 percent ask for an ear - suggesting OMB listen to feedback/counsel from IT operators.
AKA - 4 CIO 2B MVP vs OBE keep IT real.
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