Virginia CIO highlights IT progress
Virginia Chief Information Officer Sam Nixon highlights the state’s technology efforts related to procurement, public safety, cybersecurity and internal IT services in a new video created by his agency, the Virginia Information Technologies Agency.
Nixon discusses Virginia’s $300 million public-private data center partnership with Northrop Grumman, as well as VITA’s $400 million technology portfolio. He says VITA blocked 70 million cyber attacks and stopped more than 300 million spam messages in the first six months of 2012.
Other key points:
- In 2010, VITA reduced IT overhead by 15 percent.
- Became financially solvent in 2011, for the first time in five years.
- Reduced rates for IT services by 2.3 percent.
“Just like businesses and households, state agencies are also using more technology than ever before,” Nixon says in the video. “For example, the quantity of work requests submitted by agencies for additional services doubled in 2011. It’s pretty simple math. Use more, pay more. Use less, pay less. There are exceptions, but an agency’s IT costs are usually directly proportional to the amount of IT services consumed to fill their statutory responsibilities. That’s why VITA is constantly working with our technology partners to contain and reduce costs for technology.”
