The efforts of Sloan and his team at the Arizona Strategic Enterprise Technology (ASET) Office were perhaps most noticeable during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the state’s critical investments in cloud technology paid dividends. At the time, Sloan called the move “the single largest transformational initiative” of the last few years. That consolidation — which narrowed the footprint of 90 official and unofficial data centers spread across the state to two major locations and the cloud — enabled a quick transition to the remote work needs of some 90 state agencies. “Everyone had cloud-based tools for collaboration and virtual meetings. Moving quickly on cloud technologies really positioned us well for that transition,” he told GovTech in October 2020. The state’s trust-but-verify approach to IT shows prominently in how it vets cloud vendors through the AzRAMP process and its participation in the larger-scale StateRAMP initiative, an effort Sloan undertook a leadership role in crafting.
Where government work intersects with the public, Sloan has been a force for progress. In 2021, he reported that the state’s resume of digital services had reached 266 — the equivalent of 550,000 transactions worth $147 million. Similarly, the creation of a new e-licensing platform streamlined access to professional licensing. In 2020, the state earned an A- grade for these efforts in the Digital States Survey* under Sloan’s leadership.
*The Digital States Survey is a program of the Center for Digital Government, part of e.Republic, Government Technology's parent company.
