MeriTalk spells out the pros and cons of the Office of Management and Budget’s Data Center Optimization Initiative. […]

Six states–Arizona, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Virginia–are participating in a learning lab on improving the use of data to drive efficient decision-making in policymaking, the National Governors Association announced. […]

Dave Powner, director of IT issues at the Government Accountability Office, profiled the upcoming agency scorecard on FITARA and discussed the Federal government’s continuing difficulties with data center consolidation and legacy IT modernization. […]

For FITARA to reach its full potential, Federal agencies must dissect the real problems and attract stronger CIOs, Dave Powner, Director of IT Issues at the Government Accountability Office, told MeriTalk’s FITARA Forum in Washington, D.C. […]

Just 11 percent of Federal IT managers say their data centers are fully equipped to meet their agency’s current mission demands, according to a report by MeriTalk. The report, titled “Flash Forward–The Future of the Federal Data Center” and underwritten by Pure Storage, asked 150 Federal IT/data center professionals to predict and examine the future […]

Microsoft Azure was selected for a FedRAMP pilot program that will establish a high-impact baseline for cloud-computing services. This essentially allows Federal agencies to move more sensitive data onto contracted cloud-computing services, enabling the sensitive data to operate on the more technically advanced level that is already possible for low-impact data. […]

The U.S. Small Business Administration has appointed Tracy Terrill to serve as its Chief Data Officer, a new position. […]

The Government Accountability Office has charged 24 Federal agencies with consolidating data centers, but it seems their progress is too slow, according to a new report. […]

In a Customer Perspective panel at the FixFedRAMP event, three Federal CIOs and CTOs expressed frustration with current FedRAMP operations. […]

To drive down Federal spending and waste, the Office of Management and Budget has released its official Data Center Policy, designed to streamline the process of reducing the number of Federal data centers. By 2018, 52 percent of Federal data centers will close. […]

The White House is threatening to veto HR 1675 if it passes the Senate, after the House of Representatives passed the Small Company Disclosure Simplification Act that would not require most U.S. companies to file machine-readable financial statements. […]

In a new report, the Government Accountability Office said some of the definitions provided to Federal agencies for reporting spending data under the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 are inadequate, and “could lead to inconsistent reporting.” […]

The Data Transparency Coalition is changing its name to Data Coalition and opening a new research center as it gathers steam to push to standardize and publish all government information as open data. […]

A MeriTalk survey finds that Federal agencies are in need of an efficiency jump-start, and 78 percent of Feds believe DevOps will help agencies innovate faster responses and services. Legacy systems are slowing agencies down, and new apps just add to the inertia. […]

MeriTalk caught up with Department of Homeland Security Chief Privacy Officer Karen Neuman Nov. 19 at MeriTalk’s Big Data Brainstorm in Washington, D.C. Listen to the podcast. […]

Just a handful of agencies have accounted for the nearly $2 billion saved by closing Federal data centers through the first five years of the program, according to scorecards distributed by Congress, and that trend is likely to continue. The Treasury Department, Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security, and Commerce Department saved a combined $1.652 […]

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s hearing on the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) produced some good commentary from members of Congress and witnesses alike. Here are five comments from testimony and the subsequent discussion that provide perspective on the hearing. “I am so grateful to this committee for FITARA. I think […]

The massive, governmentwide efforts to consolidate data centers and squeeze more efficiency, cost savings and security out of cloud computing are not without their challenges. Both require new ways of thinking and a willingness to embrace change — two things that can be very difficult for entrenched bureaucracies that are uneasy with the perceived loss […]

The FAA awarded a $109 million contract Monday to IT services firm CSC and its team of previous rivals — including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and other strategic business partners — to deliver cost-effective cloud services, data center consolidation and cloud migration capabilities. Under the contract, which could be worth $1 billion over […]

Federal agencies aren’t the only ones trying to leverage analytics to get better at their game. Cyber crooks are doing it, as well. […]

The Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI) is driving change and savings – $3.2 billion by the end of this year according to some estimates. But surveys of federal IT professionals show that 72 percent of agencies have the same or more data centers today than before the initiative. […]

As government agencies tighten their budgets, virtualization is more heavily relied upon to increase their capabilities without increasing their expenditures. VMware continues to raise the bar with their innovative solutions to help IT staff do more with less. […]

Federal agencies are always looking for ways to serve their constituents and users more efficiently. Given the vast amounts of data agencies collect, integrating applications and data from numerous sources while also improving operational efficiency and increasing information consistency is critical. […]

Checked out the latest report by MeriTalk yet? The “Big Five in Overdrive: Are State and Local Networks Ready?”, underwritten by Brocade, examines how the implementation of the Big Five – data center consolidation, mobility, security, big data, and cloud computing – will affect state and local government IT. […]