Technically News - 9/30

Technically News scans thousands of industry articles to present you with a weekly source of IT news, information, and ideas that impact the public sector.

The State Worker: Lessons from Ohio’s State Tech Project

Ever wonder what a top state tech officer’s key takeaways from a successful project would be? Ohio’s John Conomy announced his after successfully completing the “Exodus Project.” They are fear failure, fear waste, own it, and find wins. Find out why those are his most important and more about the “Exodus Project” by reading this article from The Sacramento Bee.

States Test New Credentialing Approaches

Most agencies have two cybersecurity concerns: their own and citizens’ who use their services. Someone who decides to pay their car fees online assumes that the DMV’s website and transaction technology are secure. Michigan and Pennsylvania are now testing new technologies to ensure protection for their data. Read more on GovInfoSecurity.

Observations From This Year’s NSA Open Source Industry Day

Mark Troester, IT/CIO Strategist at Sonatype, recently wrote down his thoughts about the NSA Open Source Industry Day in Maryland. Among his insights: when people think open source, they think large infrastructure software not components and people still think an approval process is the way to manage OSS. For all 13 observations, visit his article on OpenSource.com.

GAO: Agencies Can’t Get FISMA Just Right

A new Government Accountability Office report says that agencies are still having difficulties implements the Federal Information Security Management Act – after more than a decade. Part of the blame is a lack of effective measure or performance targets to gauge progress. To read more about the report and the GAO’s recommendations to agencies, read GAO: Agencies Can’t Get FISMA Just Right on GovInfoSecurity.

CIOs See Big Data as Internet-like Innovation Platform for Government

Could big data be the next innovative platform in the public sector? Government CIOs hope so. In 2009, President Obama launched his open data initiative and today, agencies are close to enacting phase two: layering APIs on top of the data they’ve collected over four years. Read what government CIOs envision for the future over at CIO.

Could Agencies Avoid Disaster in a Nirvanix-like Cloud Shutdown

Customers of cloud storage brand Nirvanix have until Oct. 15 to move petabytes of data to other providers because they’re shutting down services. The lessons from this fallout illustrate what we’ve reported in the past: cloud users need exit and migration services. Read more about Nirvanix’s situation and what one systems integrator recommends to prepare yourself for such a situation.