NASA Aims to Be Best IT Organization

A look at the week of August 16, 2010, in public advocacy for the IT channel

This week, the General Accounting Office released a report criticizing both the private sector and the government for poor communication and collaboration around cybersecurity.  NASA hosted an IT Summit to discuss ways the agency could become the best IT organization possible following the Obama Administration call for greater transparency and engagement. A partner at A. T. Kearny maintained that we could see an end to outsourcing as we know it within five years.

GAO: Coordination Lacking On Cybersecurity – The Hill reports there is a severe disconnect between private sector efforts and government initiatives to protect our nation from cyber threats.  According to a recently released General Accounting Office (GAO) report, the federal government is not providing the private sector with timely and actionable information on cyber threats and necessary precautions. Similarly, the report found that private companies complained about their lack of access to classified information on cyber threats and the absence of a single centralized government data source on cybersecurity. Both the government and the private sector expressed frustration that the other side is often unwilling to share proprietary information on potential risks.

NASA Aims To Be Government's "Best IT Organization" – NASA held its first-ever IT Summit this week where it outlined an agenda to help the agency become the best IT organization. The Obama Administration mandated the use of IT innovations to foster transparency and public engagement, and NASA has been at the forefront of these efforts.  According to Information Week, members of industry and academia gathered at the Summit to help NASA achieve this goal.  At the event, Charles Bolden, the agency’s administrator, underscored the significance of the Summit, telling attendees that the space agency is serious about working with them and taking their advice as it strives to create more transparency through IT innovation.

Demise of Outsourcing is Imminent: In an interview with CIO Magazine, Arjun Sethi, partner and head of the outsourcing practice at consultancy A.T. Kearny, asserted that outsourcing as we know it will have disappeared within the next five years.  According to Sethi, Amazon and Google could be the future leaders in outsourcing “if they figure out what their next growth engine will be.”