Consolidating IT Infrastructure: Lessons from the Trenches

This month’s blog posting is from Teri Takai, you may remember her as the Keynote Speaker for this year’s WIT Leadership Awards.  Please see her bio after the blog post.

Consolidating IT Infrastructure:  Lessons from the Trenches

A perspective from Former DoD CIO Teri Takai

I am so excited to be initiating the WIT blog! I am a huge supporter of WIT and am always so impressed with the work that you do to provide networking opportunities and scholarships to encourage young women in technology fields. 

As government at all levels is looking at information technology to provide secure, effective, and cost efficient services, the question of improved control through consolidation becomes a popular topic. The challenges in driving consolidation are many. The challenges vary depending on the organization and the current state of information technology. Cost savings can be predicted based on current expenditure but are much harder to realize as the consolidation progresses. It often takes upfront funding with savings realized in out years. It is also difficult in many settings to actually realize the savings in reduced personnel and contractor costs or elimination of facility costs if there are other drivers which keep those costs in place like personnel policies and long term contracts.

But the greatest challenge is people and what I call 'organizational inertia' - it is hard to move from an operational organization to one which buys/gets services from someone else. There are very valid concerns about who is responsible for the level of service that the customer demands. There are also concerns over what it means to current personnel.

So why consolidate at all? Are the cost savings really worth it? While cost savings are important, security of networks and data is becoming one of the primary drivers. Organizations are finding that securing their current distributed and diverse infrastructure is not possible. The other driver is the ability to introduce new technology applications faster - we can no longer build an infrastructure from the 'data center up' for every new customer demand. Mobile and cloud technologies are teaching us that.

So, what next? Is the value of consolidation worth it? Are the inhibitors greater than the reward? No - it just means that it is hard and it cannot be driven only from the top down. While the direction must come from the top, it is the implementation from the 'bottom up' that will ensure that the consolidation objectives are met while ensuring operational stability and customer service are maintained and improved. In the end, it is patience, persistence and a dedication to the outcomes that will ensure success.

Teri
 

Teri Takai’s Biography

Teri Takai served as the Department of Defense Chief Information Officer (DoD CIO) until May of 2014, after being appointed in October 2010. In this capacity, she served as the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense for Information Management/Information Technology and Information Assurance as well as non-intelligence Space systems, critical satellite communications, navigation, and timing programs, spectrum and telecommunications. She provided strategy, leadership, and guidance to create a unified information management and technology vision for the Department and to ensure the delivery of information technology based capabilities required to support the broad set of Department missions.

Prior to this federal political appointment, Ms. Takai served as Chief Information Officer for the State of California. As a member of the Governor's cabinet, she advised the governor on the strategic management and direction of information technology resources as the state worked to modernize and transform the way California does business with its citizens.

As California’s CIO, Ms. Takai led more than 130 CIOs and 10,000 IT employees spread across the state’s different agencies, departments, boards, commissions and offices. During her tenure as State CIO, Teri pursued an agenda that supports viewing California’s IT operations from an enterprise perspective, including: Forming a Project Management and Policy Office, release of the California Information Technology Strategic Plan, passage of the Governor’s IT Reorganization Proposal, establishing a Capital Planning Process and directing agency consolidation activities.

Prior to her appointment in California, Ms. Takai served as Director of the Michigan Department of Information Technology (MDIT) since 2003, where she also served as the state's Chief Information Officer. In this position, she restructured and consolidated Michigan's resources by merging the state's information technology into one centralized department to service 19 agencies. Additionally, during her tenure at the MDIT, Ms. Takai led the state to being ranked number one four years in a row in digital government by the Center for Digital Government.

Additionally, in 2005, Ms. Takai was named "Public Official of the Year" by Governing magazine. She is also Past-President of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers and currently serves on the Harvard Policy Group on Network-Enabled Services and Government.

Before serving in state government, Ms. Takai worked for the Ford Motor Company for 30 years, where she led the development of the company's information technology strategic plan. She also held positions in technology at EDS and Federal-Mogul Corporation. Ms. Takai earned a Master of Arts degree in management and a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan.