Today kicks off the BSA CTO Forum — an annual series of meetings between private sector chief technology officers and their counterparts in the federal government and policymakers on Capitol Hill. I view this year’s forum as the “Davos” of cloud computing. We are bringing together the best private and public sector technologists to discuss how cloud solutions can help increase government efficiency and results.
One of our fundamental beliefs at BSA is that the private sector and government can accomplish much more together — on everything from cybersecurity to IP theft — than we can individually. The CTO Forum allows key leaders from the government and corporate worlds to come together on the issues that touch us both. This year, cloud computing is our key theme.
We’ll cover important ground in our meetings — including sharing private sector experience to help the government make smart decisions when choosing cloud solutions, discussing the US government’s role in protecting innovation and security in the cloud, and, ultimately, the role we all play in building government, corporate, and consumer trust in fast emerging cloud solutions.
The CTOs and I will be sharing a decision guide we’ve developed to help federal chief information officers decide when and how to move their organizations’ into the cloud. Our guide covers both the planning and implementation phases, and includes every step from budgeting, to procurement protocols, to educating personnel and management. I encourage you to take a look. (A Decision Guide for Federal CIOs)
Joining me for these important discussions are CTOs from some of the leading technology companies in the world, include Kia Behnia, BMC; Mark Bregman, Symantec; Don Ferguson, CA Technologies; Michael Fulkerson, Rosetta Stone; Nikolay Grebennikov, Kaspersky Lab; Tom Malloy, Adobe Systems; Dr. David F. McQueeney, IBM; Craig Mundie, Microsoft; Raj Nathan, Sybase; Dr. Phyllis A. Schneck, McAfee; Bhupinder Singh, Bentley Systems; Charles Snellgrove, Minitab; and Jim Stikeleather, Dell.
Our schedule is a busy one. We will be meeting with Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.), Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine); Jeffrey Zients, chief performance officer and acting director of OMB; Vivek Kundra, CIO for the US government; Aneesh Chopra, the first ever federal government CTO; Patrick Gallagher and his team from NIST; White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt; David McClure from GSA; and Daniel Weitzner from NTIA.
I’ll report back in the coming days to share more on our meetings.
