Mainframes, the giant computers that house many of state government’s most critical services, are continuing their crawl out the door, according to state technology leaders who responded to a recent survey. Data presented by the National Association of State Technology Directors at the group’s annual conference in Big Sky, Montana, this week revealed that challenges surrounding cost and workforce are continuing to push the technology out of government. Some surveyed said…

The Virginia Information Technologies Agency announced Wednesday it has awarded a six-year $242.4 million contract to Unisys to manage its server, storage and data center services. The contract joins five others already signed by the state and other vendors as part of its new services model that allows a variety of shorter contracts from different suppliers, rather than the single IT contract the state has held with Northrop Grumman since…

Fairfax County benefits from improved operational intelligence and cost savings from a reduced data center footprint, a new report says.

The Kansas Department of Revenue (KDOR) will lay off 56 employees after two multimillion dollar no-bid contracts with CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc., the company behind the torrid rollout of Healthcare.gov in 2013, the Wichita Eagle first reported this week. KDOR will move its information technology services over to the company after signing at least two no-bid contracts in February 2017 and February 2018 worth $59 million and $53 million, respectively. Some lawmakers…

State and local government agencies are turning to cloud to streamline and strengthen their organizations' cybersecurity efforts.

IT consolidation is considered a top priority of state chief information officers, but lawmakers in North Dakota have asked the state’s IT office to pump the brakes on its own consolidation project after they say they learned of major projects advancing without their approval. Chief Information Officer Shawn Riley said last week that he has paused consolidation efforts at the request of the state’s legislature, the Bismark Tribune reported, but that…

For some state and local governments, emerging technology brings just as many opportunities as challenges. Citizens continue to demand services on pace with what they can find in the private sector, while governments are struggling to embrace methodologies that will help them meet the opportunity inherent in this emerging tech. All the while, the difficulties of legacy modernization and cybersecurity continue to make it harder for state and local government…

After several rapid changes in IT leadership in recent months, the City of Baltimore is betting big on its newest chief information officer. Frank Johnson, the city’s newest CIO and chief digital officer, becomes the fifth leading IT official at the Mayor’s Office of Information Technology in five years. Johnson, who started in early September, replaced acting department head Evette Munro, who resigned in July after taking over for former CIO…

The way government thinks about digital transformation needs to change, said Washington D.C. Chief Technology Officer Archana Vemulapalli. “The whole modernization concept has to change,” she said in a panel discussion Thursday at the Digital Transformation Summit, presented by Dell EMC and produced by FedScoop. “We always think about modernization as a separate one-off effort, but it’s a very core part of delivering service.” Government should take a page from other government agencies, Vemulapalli…