Taking Stock of 2021 and Looking to the Future

Transcript:

Taking Stock of 2021 and Looking to the Future
IT leaders in state and local governments are setting new priorities and adapting to new realities as they grapple with post-pandemic planning. In 2021, Government Technology and Google Cloud convened roundtables with IT leaders in 15 states to ask them about their current challenges and future perspectives. In this Q&A, Chris Hein, head of customer engineering for public sector at Google Cloud, talks about key findings from these roundtables.

Public-facing services are increasingly digital. Some government workforces could stay hybrid indefinitely. Users’ technology expectations are higher than ever. What does all this mean for public sector IT and business leaders?
Hybrid is going to be an overarching theme in the future. We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of folks leave the workforce as part of the pandemic. We’re going to replace those people, and this new workforce will require a different set of tools. But there’s also a need for hybrid government environments that can serve all constituents across all the available channels. They need high-quality experiences and a hybrid backend that can service all their requirements.

How should government organizations be thinking about technology strategy and direction now that there’s more urgency to modernize, address technical debt, and improve resiliency and business continuity — especially in light of new federal funding opportunities?
For years, IT issues didn’t reach the mayor’s or governor’s office. Now, they recognize that responding to technical debt and changing services quickly is a necessity. But that’s hard to do on this crumbling infrastructure. With the new funding available, it’s important to get in front of this. If you don’t use this moment when high-level politicians are paying attention, it’s going to pass you by.

The pandemic proved government organizations could deploy new and innovative technologies quickly because they had to — but now there’s a concern that those gains were temporary. How can organizations maintain momentum and keep improving agility?
We’re going to need a mindset adjustment, moving away from that waterfall methodology that says, “It’s a 700-page RFP and a 1,000-page requirements document, and seven years from now we hope to see a new system in place.” It’s going to be an exciting way for the public sector to catch up with how the private sector has been building technology for 15 years.

Cybersecurity remains a top concern and a real struggle for state and local agencies, which are frequent ransomware targets. They have a hard time attracting security talent while enduring rapid operational changes that are altering their risk landscape. What’s the path forward for improving data protection and simplifying security?
Zero-trust security must be an overarching foundation moving forward. But you’re going to have to do this slowly because there is no one technology you can purchase off the shelf to fix all your problems. As you modernize, you’ve got to ask how your vendors do security. What’s their history, and do they fit your zero-trust philosophy? It’s hard to hire people with this kind of expertise. But if you can bring in a vendor with a ton of expertise and nail your first project, that can be a blueprint for the future — and a pathway to a firm foundation.