{"id":233,"date":"2011-01-07T17:59:53","date_gmt":"2011-01-07T22:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gsablogs.gsa.gov\/technology\/?p=233"},"modified":"2024-01-11T18:20:44","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T23:20:44","slug":"new-endings-new-beginnings-looking-ahead-to-2011-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsablogs.gsa.gov\/technology\/2011\/01\/07\/new-endings-new-beginnings-looking-ahead-to-2011-2\/","title":{"rendered":"New Endings, New Beginnings: Looking Ahead to 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s now been just over a year since I launched the Great Government through Technology<\/a> blog. I hope you\u2019ve enjoyed reading it as much as I\u2019ve enjoyed writing it. It\u2019s the thoughtful discussions I\u2019ve had with you\u2014our valued customer agencies, industry partners, and government colleagues\u2014that prompted me to write this blog in the first place.<\/p>\n

As you may know, I will be retiring this month. For my last two years as Assistant Commissioner of GSA\u2019s FAS Office of Integrated Technology Services (ITS), I\u2019ve had the good fortune to work with great people and oversee a number of exciting initiatives: the successful rollout of GSA\u2019s Alliant and Alliant Small Business GWACs<\/a>, the Future Commercial Satellite Communications Services Acquisition (FCSA)<\/a> in partnership with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), and the awarding of Infrastructure-as-a-Service contracts, GSA\u2019s first cloud offering.<\/p>\n

GSA has proved its commitment to greater agency and industry partnership, acquisition innovation, and operational excellence.<\/p>\n

Looking Ahead to 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

For my final post on the Great Government through Technology blog, I\u2019d like to look ahead, rather than reflect on the past. Here\u2019s what I see on the horizon for federal IT and GSA in 2011.<\/p>\n

Sustainability, cybersecurity, and cloud computing offerings have reached or passed their tipping points. In addition, budget concerns, increased oversight, and a serious need for better IT project management will lead to smaller IT acquisitions and greater collaboration.<\/p>\n

Sustainability<\/strong>. With the President\u2019s Executive Order (EO) 13514: Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance<\/a>, government agencies must become more sustainable. GSA, among others, must help achieve \u201cgreener government.\u201d At the same time, agencies will be driven by budget concerns to seek out technologies that offer greater operational efficiency and sustainability.<\/p>\n

Cybersecurity<\/strong>. Innovative acquisition solutions are critical to securing our nation’s digital infrastructure<\/a>. GSA must address agencies\u2019 current requirements and anticipate their future needs. The next generation of cybersecurity offerings must entail fully integrated solutions made up of pre-authorized products and services.<\/p>\n

Security needs and budget concerns will require increased cross-agency partnerships, such as the DoD and DHS Cybercommand Memo of Understanding (MOU)<\/a> and will spur experimentation with industry-government partnerships to leverage government buying power and private sector best practices.<\/p>\n

Cloud Computing<\/strong>. Cloud computing may prove to be the nexus of sustainability, cybersecurity, and IT organizations\u2019 need to stretch their funding. In line with these concerns and the federal CIO\u2019s \u201ccloud first\u201d policy, cloud will become the default option for IT operations. Hybrid clouds will proliferate. Pay-as-you-go, or subscription models, will become increasingly common. GSA\u2019s Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering is only the first of great things to come.<\/p>\n

Smaller IT Acquisitions. <\/strong>Agencies will seek out ways to make IT projects more manageable, cheaper, and less risky, to include breaking large-scale IT implementations into smaller projects issued under task orders to existing contract vehicles such as Alliant and Alliant Small Business<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Collaboration<\/strong>. Whether we\u2019re talking about innovative partnership strategies such as FCSA, the DoD-DHS MOU, new Web 2.0 tools such as GSA\u2019s Interact<\/a>, or improved communication among acquisition and IT shops, increased collaboration will be key to improving IT project management.<\/p>\n

The \u201cBeat\u201d Goes On<\/strong><\/p>\n

While GSA may face many challenges, 2011 will be an exciting year. Where there are challenges, there are also opportunities to innovate.<\/p>\n

In the words of a former major league baseball commissioner, \u201cPlayers turn over, owners turn over, and certain commissioners turn over. But baseball goes on.\u201d Though I am moving on, I want to welcome Mary Davie, who will be taking my place as Assistant Commissioner of the GSA FAS Office of Integrated Technology Services (ITS).<\/p>\n

As former head of the GSA FAS Office of Assisted Acquisition Services (AAS), Mary\u2019s IT acquisition experience, innate understanding of customers\u2019 needs, and proven leadership ability make her uniquely suited for leading ITS and working with you to realize the vision of Great Government through Technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s now been just over a year since I launched the Great Government through Technology blog. I hope you\u2019ve enjoyed reading it as much as I\u2019ve enjoyed writing it. It\u2019s the thoughtful discussions I\u2019ve had with you\u2014our valued customer agencies, industry partners, and government colleagues\u2014that prompted me to write this blog in the first place. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “New Endings, New Beginnings: Looking Ahead to 2011”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":256,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19176],"tags":[84,87,19204,40,22976,77,99],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-it-services","tag-alliant","tag-alliant-small-business","tag-cloud-computing-services","tag-government-acquisition","tag-governmentwide","tag-small-business","tag-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsablogs.gsa.gov\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsablogs.gsa.gov\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsablogs.gsa.gov\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsablogs.gsa.gov\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/256"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsablogs.gsa.gov\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/gsablogs.gsa.gov\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3580,"href":"https:\/\/gsablogs.gsa.gov\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions\/3580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsablogs.gsa.gov\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsablogs.gsa.gov\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsablogs.gsa.gov\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}