CIO/OFT Hosts Information Session on Cloud Computing

ALBANY, NY (01/28/2010)(readMedia)-- The New York State Chief Information Officer and Office for Technology (CIO/OFT) held a roundtable discussion to learn more about cloud computing and its potential use for modernizing the state's enterprise architecture. More than 200 vendors, service providers, state agency IT leaders, and cloud computing experts attended the session and shared valuable information as CIO/OFT considers the concept of cloud computing.

"During this time of fiscal constraint in New York State, we must reduce IT spending by strengthening IT shared services across the enterprise. By exploring emerging technologies and modern concepts we can identify innovative ways to lower costs of operations and improve IT customer service delivery," said Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, New York State Chief Information Officer and Director of the Office for Technology. "I am pleased with the great response to our session and very grateful to those who are taking the time to work with us to build innovative solutions to address our common challenges."

The Cloud Computing Roundtable provided the opportunity for CIO/OFT to learn how, and in what form, cloud computing technologies can benefit the State of New York. Cloud computing involves delivering hosted IT services over the Internet. A cloud service has three distinct characteristics that differentiate it from traditional hosting. It is available on demand, typically by the minute or the hour; it is elastic-a user can have as much or as little capacity as they want at any given time; and the computing can be fully managed by a single provider (the consumer needs nothing but a personal computer and Internet access). Significant innovations in virtualization and distributed computing, as well as improved access to high-speed Internet and a weak economy, have accelerated interest in cloud computing. This approach helps to drive down IT costs.

Some of the topics discussed during the meeting were the efficiencies and economic impact of a publicly hosted environment for New York State; methods and skills necessary to become proficient in "cloud ready" applications; types of applications best suited to be hosted in public clouds; and challenges with the adoption of cloud services for New York.

During the meeting, attendees had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Radu Sion, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stony Brook University and the Director of the CEWIT Cloud Computing Center. Dr. Sion founded the first conference on cloud computing security in the nation and is considered one of the premiere researchers on cloud computing technology.

"The exponential growth and advances in cheap, high-speed communication allow for unprecedented levels of global information exchange and interaction. Today, with computing embedded in the very fabric of our society we are finally about to reap the benefits of decades of research and development. Utility computing has arrived and is staying. The New York State CIO/OFT initiative is not only visionary, but also extremely timely in nature, having the potential to bring New York at the forefront of this IT revolution," said Dr. Sion.

Attendees participated in an interactive panel discussion led by New York State agency CIOs and technology experts from Michigan and New York City Department of Information Technology Telecommunications, and a question and answer session led by the CIO/OFT IT Delivery Service Business Unit.

"We must continue to leverage innovative technologies to achieve efficiency across the state enterprise. Cloud computing has the potential to relieve some of the burden and costs associated with managing large, complex IT infrastructure operations. Today's roundtable discussion allowed us to identify possible ways cloud computing technologies can benefit the State of New York," said Sharon Cates-Williams, NYS Deputy Chief Information Officer for IT Delivery Services.

"Protecting the privacy of New York citizens and safeguarding the security of our data and systems will be critical success factors for cloud computing. I am confident that secure cloud computing will not only reduce the cost of government information technology, but also improve the resilience of our e-government services," said Hao Wang, Ph.D., NYS Office of Mental Health Deputy Commissioner and Chief Information Officer.

"Public and private sector organizations are turning to cloud computing as a means of improving service delivery and reducing cost. This event will help us to understand how to leverage this important new technology," said Brian Scott, NYS Department of Health Chief Information Officer.

"The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance is in the midst of modernizing its outdated mainframe system. Cloud computing offers a viable alternative that will enable us to maximize the utilization of infrastructure resources, resulting in faster delivery of business solutions at a lower cost," said Daniel Chan, Ph.D., Chief Information Officer, NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. "We are supportive of CIO/OFT's efforts on this front and look forward to continued collaborations across state agencies."

"The State has a unique opportunity to lower the total cost of state and local government by reorganizing its information assets into a public cloud. Leveraging Labor Department investments in a Service Oriented Architecture (business applications composed from web services), New York is well-positioned to deliver a national unemployment insurance system from a cloud that would allow each workforce agency across the country to save millions. By building software as services in a cloud, government programmers can directly collaborate and share resources in a straight forward way to reap substantial savings," said Robert Vitello, Chief Information Officer, NYS Department of Labor.

"The elasticity cloud computing offers is essential to the success of New York City's data center consolidation efforts and its connected city initiative," said Jim DiRobbio, Executive Director of IT Services, NYC Department of Information Technology Telecommunications.

"Criminal justice organizations have unique requirements, many dictated by the federal government. A regional computing cloud for criminal justice would allow criminal justice organizations across a region to gain economies of scale, thus lowering cost while still meeting their stringent security and governance requirements," said Bob McDonough, Cloud Computing Lead Architect, Michigan IT Office of Enterprise Architecture.

When Gartner Group, a leading IT research and advisory industry firm asked clients to list their top technology priorities for 2010, CIOs ranked virtualization as their top area of focus, followed by cloud computing and Web 2.0. Gartner researchers predicted companies will invest less in hardware in the coming year and more in hosted solutions as they continue to deal with recessionary budget constraints.

"IT organizations have aspired to this shift for years, but economic, strategic and technological changes have only recently made it feasible," said Gartner Group Vice President and head Gartner Executive Programs Researcher Michael McDonald.

To view the archived webcast of the event, visit www.cio.ny.gov/CloudcomputingRFIWC.htm. In addition, anyone who would like to submit written comments on the topic of cloud computing can send them to the customer.relations@cio.ny.gov.

In the coming weeks, CIO/OFT will gather all information collected during the RFI session, analyze the implications for the state's IT enterprise and develop a strategy to move forward.

About CIO/OFT

The State Chief Information Officer and Office for Technology (CIO/OFT) provide statewide IT strategic direction, IT policy and centralized IT services to the state and its governmental entities. CIO/OFT provides IT enterprise services to support the missions of state agencies by operating four mainframe data centers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including more than 90,000 telecom users, 50 statewide mission-critical applications, a secure network of over 1,600 miles of fiber, including IT operations, telecommunications, Internet and Intranet services, enterprise email systems and support, IT training, networking, data storage and processing. In addition, the agency has a world renowned project management practice, operates a first class technology academy for NY government entities and e-learning program for groups, operates a 24/7 customer care center, develops and supports web applications and assists with application development. For more information, visit http://www.cio.ny.gov.