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Summer schooling for high achievers |
No such thing as a summer break from managing IT service consumption and IT budgets. It's a year-round concern. So, GTA's push to equip GETS agencies for success with those efforts continues uninterrupted. One piece of that, the GETS Education Program, rolls on straight through the summer and into the fall with monthly sessions for our full-service GETS customer agencies.
The June edition of the education program highlighted server-related service considerations. As GTA's COO Dean Johnson acknowledged when presenting the information, server talk veers pretty quickly into technical turf. He didn't want to scare anyone off with jargon, but Dean did note a touch of technical flavor can be expected again with the storage-related session planned for July and the mainframe session in August. Now the good news for the non-IT participants (and the IT representatives) - the consumption management steps for these IT services are decidedly plain and understandable. No fancy terms.
Throughout the education program, we're emphasizing not just clearer understanding of GETS services, but also tangible steps customer agencies can take to effectively manage their IT service consumption. See some examples in the "Server services survival training" article in this newsletter. We're bringing forward these tactics in each education session as we move from one service category (e.g. end user computing, servers) to another.
We recognize the education program demands a fair time commitment, and stamina, from participants. GTA is working to make it worth the effort and help GETS agencies become better informed and better prepared to manage how they consume IT services. My thanks to all participants for your continued attention. We have momentum. Summer won't slow our progress.
By the way, in case you missed the announcement at the June education session, the IMAC waiver offer for discontinuing GETS PC service has been extended through July 31, 2013. It's a savings opportunity GTA (in conjunction with IBM) has arranged for agencies that may be holding but not using some GETS PCs. Who says you don't win by staying in school?
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Calvin Rhodes
State Chief Information Officer
GTA Executive Director |
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Transformation progressing, nears 75 percent completion |
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In January of last year a new end-to-end transformation plan was introduced and subsequently ratified by GETS agencies. The plan put transformation, then stalled, back on track. That's clear when you size up the progress made over the past 18 months. Collaboration and coordination among project teams and affected agencies are producing real strides toward a more secure, reliable and recoverable IT enterprise for Georgia.
Transformation completion stood at 11 percent in January 2012. Today, we have attained 73 percent completion overall. Here's the progress since January 2012 on some key transformation programs:
- E-mail (Outlook to Outlook) - 89 percent, up from 20 percent 18 months ago
- End user device (PCs) refresh - 94 percent, up from 41 percent
- Malware - 88 percent, up from 27 percent
- EUC anti-virus - 99 percent, up from 33 percent
- Laptop encryption - 67 percent, up from 23 percent
It's painstaking work, and there's plenty of ground still to cover. Server consolidation and e-mail upgrade for agencies moving to Outlook from GroupWise loom especially large and will assure continued intensity straight through the coming year.
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Server services survival training |
 When it comes to server services - the focus of the most recent GETS Education Program session - things can get downright technical. There are application, utility and infrastructure servers. Physical versus virtual. Server instances. Clusters. High, medium and low complexity. For folks outside of IT, that kind of talk can leave them cold.
Appreciating that risk, GTA worked to decode the key considerations in server services at the June education session to help GETS agencies manage their IT service consumption. Agency IT leaders are fluent already in server-speak, of course, and along with their finance counterparts, they gained a better understanding of how server services appear on the GETS invoice.
As for managing server service consumption, GTA encouraged IT and finance leaders alike to carefully consider the server type and complexity needed to suit business and operational needs of their agencies. This should be a deliberate part of the decision-making at the stage new or upgraded applications are weighed. Other consumption management tactics include careful control of the number of GETS personal computers and e-mail accounts in use. Both are determinants of server charges, so there's incentive to remove unneeded GETS PCs and e-mail accounts.
Turning in unused GETS PCs repeats a theme from the previous education session on end user computing services. That type of connection among different categories of IT services will be apparent again as the monthly education program sessions scheduled this summer continue with storage and mainframe service segments upcoming.
The education program, now with five sessions logged, equips GETS agencies with information they need to more effectively manage their IT service consumption and IT budgets.
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Self-service password resets will provide added flexibility |
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Most of us have done it at one time or another - called the Consolidated Service Desk for a password reset or help unlocking an account. Chances are those calls don't always come when you have time to spare, and you may have thought, "I wish I could reset the password myself." Soon you'll have that option.
As GETS agencies complete their e-mail transformation cycle, GTA and IBM will begin introducing to them GETS Password Manager, an online tool allowing individuals to reset their own network password or unlock their account.
Once you've registered and created a profile, you can use GETS Password Manager any time, day or night, seven days a week. Without needing to call the Consolidated Service Desk, you can reset your password or unlock your account straight from your computer for any reason, including:
- You've forgotten your network password and need to create a new one.
- Your password is soon to expire or has already expired.
- You are locked out of the network due to incorrect password attempts.
The Consolidated Service Desk will continue to be available to provide help with password resets and unlocking accounts when needed. The new tool provides added flexibility for GETS customers, offering a direct way to reset passwords, whether when working from the office or from another location.
Scheduling of GETS Password Manager deployment will be coordinated with an agency's CIO.
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- For agencies that may have GETS personal computers they're holding but not using, GTA offered that no IMAC (install/move/add/change) fee would be levied for turning in those PCs in June 2013. That IMAC waiver offer for discontinuing PC service has now been extended through July 31, 2013. This allows GETS agencies more time to capitalize on the savings opportunity even in the midst of fiscal year-end activities. The limited-time waiver ties in with GTA's efforts to equip agencies to more effectively manage their IT service consumption and IT budgets.
- Eight GETS agencies are preparing to participate in the August 2013 disaster recovery (DR) exercise. This will mark the sixth DR test since the inception of the GETS program, and planning sessions are ongoing now. (Prior to GETS, the state had not developed an enterprise-wide DR program for IT.) Building on the momentum of a highly successful 2012 test, this year's exercise will further develop the state's DR capabilities. Participant agencies for August's test will include Department of Community Health, Department of Driver Services, Department of Human Services, Department of Juvenile Justice, Department Of Administrative Services, Department of Public Health, Department of Revenue and Georgia Department of Corrections.
- State agency CIOs swallowed a strong dose of warning in March when cyber threat analyst Philip Potts of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security described to them the range and severity of data security risks they must manage. As follow-up to that meeting of the state CIO Council, the group's June session emphasized tactics CIOs and their organizations can use to recognize, reduce and manage risk. GTA's Mark Reardon, state of Georgia Chief Information Security Officer, led discussion of practical security measures and pointed to the importance of agencies reporting their security efforts when they submit information (via the STARR tool) for the state's Annual Information Technology Report.
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