Consolidation, Virtualization Top State Government CIO PrioritiesConsolidation, Virtualization Top State Government CIO Priorities

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Consolidating and optimizing IT resources and using virtualization to do so will continue to be top priorities for CIOs in state government next year, according to a new survey.

Budget concerns, cloud computing, healthcare-oriented IT, and networking also will be top of mind for state CIOs looking to do more with less money and resources than they'd had in the past, according to the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) survey, "State CIO's Top Ten Policy and Technology Priorities for 2011."

The survey -- available on the NASCIO website -- breaks down next year's priorities into two categories: strategies, management processes, and solutions; and technologies, applications, and tools. Generally, CIOs' priorities in the latter category focus on technologies that will enable the strategies in the former.

Centralizing IT management and consolidating services, operations, resources, infrastructure, and data centers was found to be the top priority in the strategies category, while an enabling technology for doing so -- virtualization of various IT components -- topped the technologies category.

The results of the survey reflect some of the same concerns CIOs expressed in 2010, according to another survey sponsored by NASCIO, TechAmerica, and Grant Thornton.

That one, published in July, found consolidation and a variety of cost-savings and efficiency measures also were priorities for state CIOs dealing with shrinking IT budgets. Along those lines, state CIOs said that managing budget reduction and continuing to implement strategies to save money -- or reduce or avoid spending it -- will be priorities in 2011.

Cost reduction strategies are certainly in line with top state CIO technology priorities like virtualization and cloud computing. Indeed, government agencies at the federal, state, and local level all are implementing these measures to cut costs and optimize existing resources.

Other strategy and technology priorities listed in the survey also reflect budget-conscious IT departments. Implementing shared services -- such as business models, resources, and infrastructure -- and improving IT governance to make departments and agencies within states run more smoothly and in closer collaboration came in fifth and sixth, respectively, as strategy priorities.

Implementing solutions such as better document and records management, business intelligence, and analytics applications and identity and access management, were listed as complementary technology priorities.

Security, too, is a priority for state CIOs, but lower on the list than might be expected. Strategies such as performing risk assessment, dealing with insider threats and implementing third-party security practices came in seventh on the list of strategy priorities, while security enhancement tools took the same position on the technology priority list.

Even as they try to squeeze the most out of flagging IT budgets, the survey showed that state CIOs still want to use IT to expand government services and engagement, although these activities are of lower priority.

Improving statewide broadband connectivity and establishing public safety wireless network and telehealth solutions came in at No. 8 on the list of strategies and solutions for state CIOs, while legacy modernization to improve business processes came in at number nine.

Increasing the use of social media and networking through wikis, blogs, collaboration technologies, and social networking came in tenth on the list of technology priorities. Indeed, governments across the board have been leveraging social media to increase their engagement with citizens as well as improve how public agencies and departments collaborate.