Technical Challenges

If you were asked the question: What are the top five future technical challenges that Conservation will be faced with….How would you respond? Could you respond comfortably and confidently? Likely those are expectations of your IT Leadership. Some challenges are probably obvious…those would be the easy ones to identify. I think part of the challenge in this business we’re in is NOT to let the day to day emergencies become your primary technical challenges….if they are, something is amiss.

GCN states from a recent poll that the top five future technical challenges from the government orgs were: (current challenges listed in parentheses)
1) Compliance with security directives (same)
2) Data quality (same)
3) Infrastructure & Software Security (Disaster Recovery)
4) Data Management (Infrastructure & Software Security)
5) Disaster Recovery (Data Management)

Do any of these sound familiar? They should…..I would offer that all five of the current and future challenges are very much our concerns also. Perhaps we’ve not done a good enough job of tying the work priorities/objective and budget into a short crisp word or two like the above….but our project list, budget, and work priorities certainly tie directly to this list. I’ll spell a few out with examples to prove the point:

1) Compliance with security directives: our efforts = computer and password policies, screen lockups, documentation of security and processes, etc.
2) Data quality: our efforts = redundant systems, SAN storage, bigger pipes, credential access to data, etc
3) Infrastructure & Software Security: our efforts = internal controls and documentation, “A” account controls, standardization practices, tools to evaluate our code writing, software testing personnel, etc
4) Data Management: our efforts = budget request for Centerra, discussion internal & externally re: data lifecycle management tools, etc
5) Disaster Recovery: our efforts = DR documentation created by the CIO, budget requests for DR hardware, documentation of hard/soft-ware build processes, redundant systems installed, etc.

Now I’ve only listed the first few off the top of my head…I guarantee there are many, many more examples. So what’s the point? The point I’m trying to make is that we have a pretty good IT Team in place. We are looking at the future while trying to address the current. We are addressing many of the common issues, we are looking down the road, we are being proactive when and where possible. Are we there yet…..No….but we’re not just sitting on our hands watching the world pass us by. We are trying to address immediate customer concerns, while trying to be visionary and seeing what issues lay in road ahead.

I’m encouraged to read articles like this…and to know we have solutions in place to help this Agency deal with many of them…in some cases, without our customers evening knowing it’s an issue. That’s part of the value we have by employing quality technical staff who understand the business of Conservation. Our work isn’t finished as we must continue to build upon the foundation established by others before us. We must continue to address current wants/needs in a timely fashion, but we must place even more emphasis on visioning, strategic positioning, and costing advantages that technology can bring to Conservation.

TAFN