Just stop for a moment and think about the last 12 months in the federal technology community and all that has happened.
The excitement over IT modernization hit a crescendo with the Centers of Excellence effort coming together at the departments of Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development. The Technology Modernization Fund is among the most watched initiatives in a long time despite the limited short-term impact it can have on agency modernization efforts.
The Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act furthered IT reform progress not just because of continued harassment of agency chief information officers, but, for once, Congress and the Government Accountability Office may have just chosen the right metrics and right authorities to motivate real change.
And then there is cybersecurity. The never-ending story of breaches and data loss—see NASA as the latest example—that came fast and furious over the last decade seems to have slowed.
The Office of Management and Budget revised four major cyber policies—Trusted Internet Connections (draft), high valued assets (final), identity management (draft) and cloud smart (draft)—and revoked dozens of…