21 June 2011 HP Government Software Summit

On Tuesday 21 June 2011 I was honored to be given the role of moderator for an all day HP Government Software Summit, held at the Newseum in Washington DC.

The purpose of the event was to focus on the information needs of government IT professionals, especially those dealing with enterprise IT issues. That is a sweet spot for HP software solutions and a natural theme for this sort of event. Through the day there were several keynote presentations and breakout sessions where attendees could interact with professionals from government and industry, and overall it was a very enjoyable session.

But upon reflection of how the event went, I think we all left with different “take-aways.” For government attendees, I’m hoping they left with a better understanding of how to optimize software they already have and how to implement software they may soon have. For HP and other industry attendees I hope they left with a better understanding of federal mission needs and I hope that translates into better products being provided into the community.

But me, I left with an unexpected and very pleasant benefit that is much harder to articulate. I left with closer friendships with some key people I look up to and respect.

Speakers at the event included:

• Christian Verstraete, CTO for HP Cloud activities (see his blog here: http://www.enterprisecioforum.com/en/blogs/christian)
• Jeffrey Johnson, CTO of FBI: When the story of FBI is told and the long list of successes are tallied I believe Jeffrey will be seen as a key reason for success in the FBI’s IT program.
• Nitin Pradhan, CIO of DoT: Nitin is not only CIO but a visionary leader and mentor to 1000′s.
• Tim Schmidt, CTO of DoT. Tim is one of the great CTOs, with an ability to wrap his mind around a full range of technology, including embedded IT as well as the entire stack of technology serving transportation missions today.
• Kirit Amin, CIO of the State Department’s Bureau of Counselor Affairs, one of the largest, most critically important data rich enterprises in government today.

Here is a bit more on Kirit, one of the unsung heros of the battle for homeland defense and enhanced national security:

Kirit Amin, Chief Information Officer, Bureau of Consular Affairs and Director for the Office of Consular Systems & Technology, US Department of State

Kirit Amin serves as the Chief Information Officer for the Bureau of Consular Affairs and Director for the Office of Consular Systems and Technology (CST) at the US Department of State. CST develops, installs, provides training, and supports CA’s information technology (IT) systems dispersed across 270+ worldwide locations.

As CA CIO and Director of CST, Mr. Amin is responsible for all CA IT programs, which support the agency’s mission of protecting the lives and interests of American citizens overseas and strengthening U.S. border security. Mr. Amin has a vision for creating a consolidated person-centric IT environment, capable of adapting to new and emerging business requirements. The Bureau of Consular Affairs serves as the public face of the Department of State for millions of United States citizens and foreign nationals around the world.

Mr. Amin has more than 30 years of experience in the management, leadership, engineering, design, implementation and direction of large systems integration projects, including the application of current technology to secure data and network communications. Prior to joining CST in June 2007, Mr. Amin held key IT management positions at Nortel PEC Solutions, Vector Research, Inc., and Computer Sciences Corporation. He is also the founder, former President, and CEO of InfoTec, Inc.

Mr. Amin holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from MS University and received his Executive Master of Science degree in Technology Management from the University of Maryland. He is married and has a grown up daughter who is an alumni of Virginia Tech and has followed her father’s path into the Federal IT world.

With professionals like that interacting in a dynamic fashion it is hard for me to capture the content that was exchanged. Sorry about that!

But I can tell you this, I left feeling good about the status of professionalism on the part of the federal IT effort.

More later,

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