GOVERNOR HOCHUL’S BUDGET PRIORITIZES INVESTMENTS IN STATE’S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND CYBERSECURITY
Recently, I had the honor and privilege of testifying at a Joint Legislative Hearing on Governor Hochul’s Executive Budget. It’s one of many parts of the State’s overall Budget process, but it’s an important one. It’s here that legislators can ask difficult and probing questions, and hold agency heads accountable for their progress or lack thereof on key state issues.
As New York State’s Chief Information Officer and Director of the Office of Information Technology Services (ITS), an agency on the rise, I have a rooting interest in the outcome of the process this year.
Why? Because the state’s digital needs have never been greater than they are today, and, in turn, our agency is taking on more than ever before. If we are going to set the State up for future success, new ITS resources are essential.
To her credit, Governor Hochul recognizes this fact, and has advanced a spending plan that provides ITS with an increase of $174 million over last year, including 295 additional and much-needed bodies.
To more effectively carry out our strategic mission, ITS recently transitioned to a new Dedicated Agency Service Model, which brings our skilled technology workers closer to the agencies they serve.
It has strengthened the bond between ITS and its client agencies, allowed us to become more proactive and strategic, and leveraged our new Deputy Commissioners of Technology and their teams to fuel the State’s ongoing digital transformation.
We have also raised our performance, as witnessed by the ITS-directed response to last year’s global IT outage. This disruption could have been devastating and had lasting consequences for New York, as it did for many organizations throughout the country and the world.
Instead, ITS worked to bring all critical systems back online within 24 hours and swiftly remediated tens of thousands of blue screens so our state employees could get right back to work for their agencies and the people of New York.
We have also made major progress on several modernization initiatives, including the transition to the Integrated Eligibility System. By breaking this massive project into smaller, more flexible and more manageable pieces, we have made extraordinary progress and moved the state closer to the “no wrong door” public benefits system New Yorkers deserve.
ITS is also providing the human resources to deliver the customer experience gains envisioned by Governor Hochul, including overhauled agency websites, streamlined workflows, optimized digital services for mobile devices, a sharper focus on the customer journey, and improved access for all.
At year ago, ITS wrote and issued the first-ever statewide policy on the Acceptable Use of AI Technologies. It now serves as a roadmap for agencies to adopt AI safely and responsibly.
Today, we are right in the middle of much of the heavy lifting on AI, and in the coming weeks ITS will issue specific guidance to agencies that will help identify and catalogue AI systems in use. We are also working with agencies to understand and support potential new use cases, and will soon make AI training and education and other tools available to the entire State workforce.
In 2022, ITS built the Joint Security Operations Center (JSOC) and now New York State is a recognized national leader in the cybersecurity space.
For the first time ever, we are implementing a comprehensive statewide strategy on cybersecurity. We are protecting our State and local entities from cyber threats, and we continue to grow JSOC’s capabilities every day – – providing actionable intelligence and alerts to our partners, and onboarding new statewide subscribers virtually every day. The Executive Budget provides new and necessary resources to grow the JSOC to meet this surging demand.
If we are going to complete all of this important work and deliver even more for New York, we must grow the state’s IT workforce to meet the moment.
It’s simple – – every time we use a state employee to develop a technology solution, we do it better, faster and save taxpayers more of their money. And, we are determined to continue proving it.
The new ITS resources in the Governor’s Budget will keep our State moving forward on cybersecurity, customer experience, AI, modernization and so many other important initiatives. It’s more critical than ever for the Legislature to follow Governor Hochul’s lead and fully fund State IT in any final budget.
Dru Rai is NYS Chief Information Officer and Director of the Office of Information Technology Services (ITS)
