A state CIO needs not only tech savvy but political finesse to get the green light for IT projects. Likewise, governors and their policy makers increasingly are realizing the value of a state CIO who can use IT to further their political initiatives.
"In choosing a CIO, you want someone who understands the technology business and how to use technology to achieve policy goals," William Leighty, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner's chief of staff, said Monday at the National Association of State CIOs' midyear conference in Chicago. "It also helps if that person can communicate with legislators."
Leighty, who's been Warner's chief of staff since January 2002, shared a panel Monday with Toby Roth, chief of staff for Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, and William Goetz, chief of staff for North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven.
The goal for states should be to align their policy advisors with their CIOs and engage IT in the policy process, Roth said. "IT is not instinctive to policy advisers, and [CIOs] have got to have the policy advisers on board." Getting IT involved in the development of policy also helps ensure continuity from administration to administration.
Technology staffers need to know and understand a governor's agenda, including education, corrections, and the budget, Goetz said. "But they also have to understand how the legislature works."
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
