May- 201919GOVERNMENT CIO OUTLOOKHow to Succeed in Enterprise IT for DoDJohn Zangardi, CIO, United States Department of DefenseByCIOINSIGHTSs the Acting DoD CIO, I am the primary advisor to the Secretary of Defense for Information Management / Information Technology and Information Assurance as well as non-intelligence space systems; critical satellite communications, navigation, and timing programs, spectrum, and telecommunications.Enterprise IT is one of the most challenging areas. It is complex, and there are many stakeholders to satisfy. Enterprise IT underpins virtually everything that we do. It is a critical enabler for the warfighter.Given the importance of enterprise IT to the mission, my objective as the acting DoD CIO is to ensure that my organization is thinking differently­more innovatively. The objective is to enable more effectiveness and efficiency for the mission, and to leverage IT to empower the warfighter. I have also heard from industry that the acquisition of IT needs to be less prescriptive, and focus more on capabilities and outcomes.To this end, I have focused my team on three primary objectives: 1. Increasing Speed to Capability2. Balancing Security and Cost3. Instilling a Culture of Risk AwarenessThese three objectives are not mutually exclusive, but mutually reinforcing, and they are essential to solving today's complex problems. Support to the mission and warfighter is woven through everything we do.Let's face it. Today's complex problems cannot be solved with yesterday's thinking that is common to the stereotypical government approach. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said, "Information technology is at the core of how you do your business and how your business model itself evolves."Improving how DoD does business and evolving our business models related to IT will help us reach all of our objectives. Industry partnerships area common thread throughout everything we do. The reality is that IT innovation today more often originates in industry, and not the government.Partnering with industry and leveraging commercial approaches for the IT business are essential to move forward on these three objectives. There are many ways in which my team is bringing speed to capability, balancing security and cost, and instilling a culture of risk awareness in DoD. We are: · Modernizing the way that DoD travels · Rethinking commercial cloud security· Moving to commercial for collaboration and productivity· Improving coalition information sharing· Speeding up the hiring of cyber talent Modernizing the way that DoD travels.Defense travel reform is about simplifying processes and modernizing security to improve the DoD travel experience and reduce costs. This is AEnterprise IT underpins virtually everything that we do. It is a critical enabler for the war fighterJohn Zangardi
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