An Office of the CTO Guest Blog
By Colleen McMillan
So does the saying go; "Life imitates art?" or "Art imitates life?" I can never seem to remember, but it seemed especially relevant when I recently attended the 2011 NASCIO mid-year conference in D.C. — a forum for U.S. State and Local Government agencies to share their IT successes, challenges, and trends. With an expected collective budget shortfall of over $100 billion for the 50 state governments, it was interesting to hear the diverse and extreme ways these government IT departments were doing their part to aid with cost cutting. Such extreme pressure and cost cutting measures reminds me of a recent Dilbert cartoon by Scott Adams:
All joking aside as I am sure Scott Adams didn’t specifically have the state agencies in mind when writing this cartoon, but I couldn’t help notice the irony. It is worth noting that the cumulative sum of all state and local governments IT spending is approximately $90 billion for products and services, and represents the largest U.S. IT market. This sounds like an incredible amount until you consider the fact that the FY2011 budget is $42 billion less than the FY2008 budget. Along with this IT budget shortfall comes severe pressure to find new ways to deliver real savings by leveraging innovative technology with a proven ROI.
At first glance it seems almost mutually exclusive -- how to transform government IT systems to improve services while also cutting IT budgets? Agencies are making cuts to services, personnel and programs -- everything is on the table. Virtualization, cloud computing and data center consolidation are the top three trends identified as impactful technologies toward cutting costs, improving business agility, and ultimately providing a platform for developing modern applications.
As Winston Churchill once said, "Gentleman we have run out of money, now we must think."
It was exciting to hear how government IT departments are saving millions by implementing successful virtualization and cloud computing strategies to not only consolidate, but actually enhance their IT offerings with improved security, disaster recovery options and improved efficiency of operations.
According to Stephen Dunn, director of the Pennsylvania’s OIT’s Bureau of Infrastructure and Operations "Since deploying VMware virtualization technology, the state has saved more than $36 million in new server purchases, productivity enhancements, energy costs and infrastructure expenses."
The state of Michigan saved over $20 million dollars after consolidating from 40 to 3 data centers while also reclaiming over 30,000 sq. feet in office space.
Mark Bengel, CIO for Tennessee, highlighted how his department was able to save over $25 million annually while also increasing productivity by over 200% — clearly these are shining examples of states finding creative ways to provide more value to their citizens!
IT transformation is also occurring in our local school districts and college campuses. These schools are coming up with innovative ways to incorporate technology to cut costs and provide greater student access to learning tools. University CIOs have shared stories of how their IT practices have directly impacted their ability to provide a higher quality of education to their students, going so far as to say, "Every dollar saved by IT can be spent on providing education to our students."
It was especially interesting to hear how the landscape of college campuses are changing; they are closing physical labs in favor of providing students with secure access anytime, anywhere through desktop virtualization. My college days at FSU (Go Seminoles!) are long over, but I am envious of today’s students. Imagine "rolling out of bed" to do homework at home, instead of rushing to a lab the morning before an assignment was due or trekking across campus alone in the dark for an all-nighter? Obviously, a considerable service improvement for today’s students, but also big savings for the school by freeing up valuable classroom space, leveraging student-owned devices, and cutting software licensing and lab staffing requirements. Now instead of hearing my parents lecture me about having to walk to school in the snow, I will be telling the next generation how we had to walk across campus (uphill both ways) to get our assignments done! Truly a unique example where schools are leveraging IT in new ways to increase value to students.
The public sector shapes and impacts the quality of our daily lives, whether it’s providing safe communities with parks and schools for our children, to providing transportation infrastructure, utilities and social services. As the VMware Director for global public sector solutions, I'm constantly impressed and proud of these agencies and their efforts to leverage VMware technologies in strategic ways; not to grow shareholder wealth, but to make a difference in people’s lives. Clearly someone is thinking.
To learn more about our public sector programs, you can follow us on Twitter @VMwareGov and @VMwareEdu.
