50 Most Influential Government CIOs
June 07, 2011 07:00 AM Check out InformationWeek's Government CIO 50, our power list of top government CIOs--ranging from the NSA's technology chief to innovators at the state and city government level. They've got vision, clout, and sometimes, billion-dollar IT budgets. But most of all, these CIOs are known for delivering tangible, measurable results. Here's an inside look at the government technology leaders and their approaches to unique IT leadership challenges.
Richard Spires, CIO, Department of Homeland Security
The Department of Homeland Security was built from two dozen "component" organizations--the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and others--and IT silos were an inevitable result. CIO Richard Spires is looking to consolidate and simplify the IT infrastructure that serves them all.
Job No. 1 is to consolidate 24 data centers down to two, a project that is under way. That hands-on experience makes Spires somewhat of an expert at data center consolidation, which explains why he was selected to lead the government-wide Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative, which aims to eliminate 800 data centers by 2015. Spires also plans to build an enterprise operations center that will give network administrators a more complete and real-time view of IT operations across the agency. And he's looking to provide enterprise-wide services, such as email, to DHS components.
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