Four steps to sustain the U.S. government's IT strategy in the post-Kundra era - Blogging for Computerworld

Glenn Weinstein

Big enterprises, with their deep pockets and hefty IT departments, have historically served as testing grounds for new technologies. And recently we've watched the "consumerization of IT" where innovation begins with consumers and trickles down to the enterprise. But government was probably considered the last place to look for an aggressive IT strategy.

That image was was shattered when Vivek Kundra took the IT reins of the U.S. federal government in 2009. Kundra is well known for implementing a "cloud-first" policy for all federal agencies. His departure announcement casts doubt over whether agencies will sustain the momentum required for this sort of sweeping change. Kundra's announcement comes as the White House is expected to spend roughly $80 billion this year on technology, funding that includes upgrading thousands of federal programs, including email and collaboration systems, to cloud-based technologies.

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