On July 6th, the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) published a new strategic IT plan that maps out a wide variety of their organizational goals, on-going project summaries, and accumulated statistics. It also includes new innovative technologies that they plan on taking better advantage of in upcoming years. DIR says their mission is to be limited, efficient, and completely accountable.
One the most notable statements is that they have decided to follow in the footsteps of the Federal government by implementing the use of cloud computing. Although it has not been used for a long period of time in government, DIR sees that there are many benefits to cloud solutions, and many studies have been done on its effectiveness. Cloud Security is rapidly evolving and prices are proving to be progressively more economical. They have also done research of their own and now feel that the time is right to incorporate the cloud into their infrastructure.
Texas’ state agencies and higher education institutions invest more than $2.8 billion annually on technology resources. DIR’s budget for fiscal year 2012 and 2013 is $537.5 million. Texas is commonly known as a “power state” in the world of government contracting, this commitment to the advancement of technology and cloud computing puts them another step ahead. This intelligent course of action should be mimicked by all agencies who want to attain the wealth of cost-benefits and efficaciousness that comes along with this commitment technology development.