Security and risk management topped a priority list of state chief information officers (CIOS) for next year, while consolidation/optimization and cloud services were ranked as the second and third, respectively, priorities.
It's no surprise that security was ranked first in the survey by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) since it topped the list of IT priorities the previous two years. The survey results included a top-ten list of CIO's biggest priorities next year.
Based on a survey of state government CIOs across the nation, the security-related issues identified by the respondents included governance, budget and resource requirements, security frameworks, data protection, training and awareness, insider threats and third-party practices. Third-party practices are a key concern for the CIOs as outsourcing increases due to tighter IT budgets.
Under the category of consolidation and optimization of IT systems, centralizing, consolidating services, operations, resources, infrastructure, data centers, communications and marketing "enterprise" thinking were identified as the key elements to address.
The priorities for cloud services included developing a cloud strategy, the proper selection of service and deployment models, agile and scalable IT capabilities for Internet-based "as-a-service" tools, governance, service management and catalogs, platform, infrastructure, security, privacy and data ownership.
In a separate category of "Top-Ten Technologies, Applications and Tools," security enhancement tools placed third overall while cloud solutions, which included "software-as-a-service," was second and "legacy application modernization/renovation" was first.
"The survey results show a strong alignment between strategic plans and technology investment," said NASCIO President and Connecticut CIO Mark Raymond in a statement. "Data management, cloud solutions and certainly security are demanding our attention. Consolidation and sharing of services will drive needs to improve identity management, governance and optimization."
— Mike Robuck, Editor, Telco Transformation