Techwire has been querying IT leaders in government and the private sector about what trends they see in government technology in 2018. Today, three of those figures weigh in.
First up is Lea Deesing, CIO of the city of Riverside, who weighs in on what she expects to see in the next year and beyond:
"Governmental agencies will be embracing more IoT than ever before, but such an influx of smart devices will bring forth additional cybersecurity concerns. We will need to spend time carefully laying down the framework and policies so that we know what should and shouldn’t be on our network."
She also sees a growing role for artificial intelligence:
"AI will continue to become prevalent in government. We are already seeing agencies taking 311 to a new level with the use of AI by marrying the two with home automation systems such as Amazon Echo and Google Home. I see AI-enabled apps becoming even more integrated with government technology over the next year, which will continue to enhance our customers’ experience."
A former CIO and AIO in state government who's now in the private sector, Joe Panora, sees criminal justice as a key.
"From a justice perspective, in 2018 we will continue to see the need to leverage data across multiple jurisdictions to improve public safety. The demand for more transparency and accountability, along with the array of technologies deployed in this area, creates the perfect situation to share and exchange data in a more collaborative and meaningful way," said Panora, who is a senior fellow with e.Republic's Center for Digital Government (TechWire is a part of e.Republic).
"Increased social media and public awareness, plus the need to address crime in all fronts — for example, sex trafficking, child and elder abuse, identify theft, plus new cannabis laws coming into effect, the need to deal with the opioid crisis, and criminal justice reform — will drive the business intelligence, analytics, and predictive analysis market."
Also offering an outlook from the private sector is Chad Hodges, vice president of business development for Enterprise Networking Solutions Inc.
“The days of hybrid IT are here to stay," Hodges wrote. "2018 will continue to see the proliferation of on-prem and off-prem solutions to help IT meet their ever-changing and wildly creative needs from their business units. Cloud integration with public and private infrastructure environments will make security the glue that holds it all together and rounds out our enterprise. And the data created will move all over that enterprise faster than ever before, making the need for proper data classification and access to said data all the more important.
"Our citizens are used to real-time data and feedback in their everyday private lives (social media, etc.) and will want to see more of it in their interactions with our government and commercial enterprises (banking, permits, gov ops). We at ENS-Inc. want to be the consultant of choice when it comes to determining where workloads make the most sense to reside and how people will gain access to them the right way. Speed of delivery will be key, but safe and secure will be a must. Bring it on, 2018!”
