West Virginia Sets Sights on a Next-Gen Data Center
The state’s “data center 2.0” project is aimed at upgrading infrastructure to make it more secure and resilient. It will also provide a critical foundation for future plans to take advantage of cloud technologies.
Earlier this year, legislation in West Virginia not only changed tech leader Joshua Spence’s title from CTO to CIO, but it also ushered in a new enterprise model for technology in the state. At last week’s National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) conference in Seattle, Spence talked to GT about what that change means for how West Virginia delivers tech to its agencies.
And beyond the structural changes to state IT, Spence is also focused on modernizing West Virginia’s on-premise data center infrastructure. He views the effort as a preliminary step on the path to future goals, which include migrating appropriate applications to the cloud.
“It’s critical to understand those workloads if you’re going to seek to gain the efficiencies the cloud has to offer,” he said.
Noelle Knell is the executive editor for e.Republic, responsible for setting the overall direction for e.Republic’s editorial platforms, including Government Technology, Governing, Industry Insider, Emergency Management and the Center for Digital Education. She has been with e.Republic since 2011, and has decades of writing, editing and leadership experience. A California native, Noelle has worked in both state and local government, and is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, with majors in political science and American history.
Lauren Kinkade is the managing editor for Government Technology magazine. She has a degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and more than 15 years’ experience in book and magazine publishing.
