Rod Turk, acting chief information officer at the Department of Commerce, has said the policies, budget authorities and funding vehicles provided by the White House and Congress in recent years have already been helping federal agencies modernize their networks, MeriTalk reported Wednesday.
The government is now approaching the “tipping point†in IT modernization, he said at a recent event organized by the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council.Â
Turk highlighted the 2014 Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act contributed to the progress by providing CIOs with more authority to manage their agencies’ acquisition and implementation of IT.Â
“FITARA has been a significant driver in the world of the CIO†as the law helps promote awareness on IT issues across agencies, Turk noted.Â
Commerce’s CIO office also utilizes enterprise management and contracting skills, outsourced IT functions and shared services to modernize its IT infrastructures, with current efforts focused on credential management, access control issues and integration of Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation technologies, according to Turk.Â
He added the agency is approaching a $3B annual budget for its IT, and the funding may support future projects to develop new systems.
Turk also suggested the use of artificial intelligence to help CIOs predict security threats and speed up decision-making.Â
