In a discussion of “Platform and Architecture Outlook,” at Techwire’s State of Technology - California Industry Forum in Sacramento, CDT’s Chief Technology Officer Richard Rogers and its Chief Enterprise Architect Ben Word discussed the department’s history, challenges following the reorganization brought by Assembly Bill 2408 in 2010, and what this could mean for vendors. Among the takeaways:
• OTech operates a Tier 3 data center and came to house mission-critical, public-facing applications from other state entities after AB 2408 took effect. In an effort to eliminate duplicative services, the agency has focused on making itself departments' IT service provider of choice, and officials have emphasized customer satisfaction. OTech has become in part, a broker of public cloud offerings and services that it may not host.
“But we make sure that our residents are receiving services,” Word said.
• Rogers said he sees OTech continuing to improve what it offers departments as they, in turn, face unrelenting demand from customers, in response to a question from moderator Alan Cox, e.Republic executive vice president.*
“They’re going to be forced to have to let some of that stuff get done. Because the customer demand for enhancing our services is just going to be too overwhelming for them to be able to deal with those things on a day-to-day basis,” Rogers said.
• OTech is taking a “user-centered focus,” Word told the roughly 170 attendees on Dec. 2. Doing so, the agency hopes, will get it “closer to the actual end user” of the IT services it provides to state, county, local and even federal governments. But, he cautioned, OTech will need help from vendors as it sharpens this focus and continues conversations with the 130-plus state departments it serves.
“It’s not just around technologies, but it’s around being able to tell the story of who we’re serving that’s out there,” Word said.
• An enterprisewide gap analysis helped inform an enterprise portfolio planning road map for IT projects, Word said, highlighting the value of shared services that can be built once but leveraged multiple times. The agency has been reducing duplicative services and recently migrated to a single email solution selected by its customers.
• For now, mainframe is here to stay, Rogers said, describing OTech as “100 staff strong” in that area, which is a big draw for customers. But, he added, it’s possible OTech staff could transition somewhat to professional services and to “bridging the gap between the applications and the platform services that they’re trying to consume.”
*e.Republic is Techwire’s parent company.
