August - 20218GOVERNMENT CIO OUTLOOKIN MYOPINIONhen people think of nimble and agile technology companies, their minds gravitate to Silicon Valley, Seattle, Washington, and maybe even Austin, Texas. But few would ever dare to consider the United States Department of State (DOS), or potentially any Federal Government agency for that matter, as spry, responsive, and able to turn on a dime.Back in late January of 2020, as the true scope of the COVID-19 epidemic was beginning to unfold, the U.S. Department of State began to plan for the eventuality that the virus would spread and would disrupt all facets of life as we know it. As a precautionary measure, the Department leadership asked the Bureau of Information Resource Management (IRM) to develop information technology contingency plans that would allow for the over 100,000 members of the Department's globally dispersed workforce to work remotely. The Department of State has a long (231 years), proud tradition of service to the American people, and operates in 195 countries via 275 foreign posts and throughout the United States at nearly 300 domestic facilities. The information technology infrastructure that supports all of those personnel in all of those locations is based primarily on PCs. While the Department has for many years enabled the workforce to utilize mobile computing technologies, e.g. tablets and mobile phones, these solutions were not well suited for the day to day conduct of diplomacy and for the many unique mission functions of the Department. It was one thing to be able to check e-mail remotely via mobile devices, but a wholly different proposition to enable the global workforce to create content, collaborate, publish reports, transact foreign aid and the myriad other special activities The critical need to create new applications almost in real-timeMichael Mestrovich, Principal Deputy Chief Information Officer, U.S. Department of StateByW
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