Overview

May 14

Based on their experiences in 2020, state and local government agencies are focused on modernizing technology to cope with future disruption. New national research from the Center for Digital Government found that migrating IT infrastructure to the cloud and strengthening network capabilities have become top priorities for these agencies. Essentially, respondents said they view cloud services as central to their post-pandemic IT modernization strategies and they’ll need network technologies that are flexible, scalable and secure to support this move.

This webinar will offer insights and advice on how agencies can modernize their networks to meet the requirements of a post-pandemic environment – one that includes growing adoption of cloud services, as well as greater reliance on remote work and digital service delivery. A panel of experts from the Center for Digital Government will explore how these new demands impact network strategies and how new approaches such as software defined networks can help agencies ensure network flexibility, expand functionality and mitigate security risks.

Speakers

William Rials, Ph.D.

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government and former CIO, State of Mississippi

William (Bill) Rials, Ph.D., is a professor and associate director (department chair) of the Tulane University School of Professional Advancement IT and Cybersecurity Program, where he focuses on continually delivering and updating the program curriculum based on innovative and emerging technologies. Before transitioning to academia and higher education, he had a diverse gov tech career delivering value to state agencies, local governments, and law enforcement agencies throughout the state of Mississippi. He has served in CIO, CTO, and CISO roles for local governments and also in various leadership positions within the state of Mississippi’s IT organization as a deputy to the state CIO. Dr. Rials holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Belhaven University, a master’s degree in computer information systems and cybersecurity from Missouri State University, as well as a Ph.D. in higher education administration and public administration from Jackson State University. His dissertation research involved the critical factors that affect the adoption of cloud services within the public sector. He is a noted expert in the IT and cybersecurity space and is frequently quoted by national media outlets. He is also a frequent contributor to national IT government organizations such as NASTD and NASCIO.

Mike Timm

Director, Information Technology, Oakland County, Michigan

Mike Timm is a seasoned IT Professional with nearly 40 years in the IT field. He began his career in the automotive sector focused on manufacturing systems with an early bent toward lean manufacturing. Throughout his career there has been a focus on process improvement, project management, and systems integration. Mike joined Oakland County in 2017 as the Director, where he leads a talented team of IT professionals supporting 82 County divisions, more than 100 local governmental units (assessors, treasurers, law enforcement, etc.), and thousands of Access Oakland customers. Oakland County IT is an award winning, centralized IT organization supporting over 200 applications, over 4000 workstations, the CLEMIS system in a 10-county area of southeast Michigan, as well as the county’s 911 system (upgraded in 2017) and is going through a major public safety radio system upgrade, ERP and VOIP implementations, and campus WiFi upgrade. The IT Department has also been a leader in implementing a ‘cloud first’ strategy for infrastructure and applications.

Bob Woolley — Moderator

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government and former Chief Technical Architect, State of Utah

Bob was the chief technical architect for the state of Utah’s Department of Technology Services, including the development of the state’s Utah.gov portal. Utah has been widely recognized in these areas with numerous national awards. He has also been a technical lead and RFP writer for the WSCA/NASPO Cloud and Data Communication Procurements. He has experience with state, county and higher education employee skill assessments and technology upgrade implementations. He has extensive experience with development and implementation of enterprise infrastructure and technology services. He focuses on e-government and technical architecture, with special emphasis on technical architecture implementation, planning and analysis; Web design; cloud implementation; and development of online government services. He is a specialist in Theory of Operations documentation processes and implementation of Microservice Architecture and DevOps in hybrid cloud environments. He has worked in the public sector as a university professor and systems analyst, and in the corporate world as a company president and enterprise architect. He has a master’s degree from Utah State University. He was named as one of Government Technology Magazine’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers, and has specialized in applying new and emerging technology solutions to government.

Webinar

Focusing on Resilience: 2021 IT Modernization Priorities