Federal CIO Vivek Kundra is interpreting some unscripted comments from his boss knocking government IT as a challenge rather than an indictment.
"The President is absolutely right," Kundra said in a statement. "When we came into office, Federal IT was undeniably broken. These problems weren't created overnight and they won't be solved overnight."
President Obama played the federal government's tech capacity for laughs and groans after the press pool left a Chicago fundraiser last Thursday, apparently unaware that a live microphone was transmitting his comments to a CBS News reporter who was still listening back at the White House.
The president began by bemoaning the lack of "cool phones," "fancy buttons," and "the big screen that comes up" with maps of military operations and natural disasters.
Pretty soon, though, he was dishing in earnest about outdated IT equipment and poor purchasing.
"That's why we are aggressively cracking down on wasteful IT spending and turning around poorly performing projects," Kundra's statement said. "From consolidating data centers and moving to the cloud, we're closing the technology gap between the private and public sectors."
Joseph Marks
Joseph Marks covers government technology issues, social media, Gov 2.0 and global Internet freedom for Nextgov. He previously reported on federal litigation and legal policy for Law360 and on local, state and regional issues for two Midwestern newspapers. He also interned for Congressional Quarterly’s Homeland Security section and the Associated Press’s Jerusalem Bureau. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in international affairs from Georgetown.
Addressing the 3 Biggest BYOD Security Threats
Mobile Apps: New Ways to Connect Government with Citizens
Continuous Monitoring As a Service: A Shift in the Way Government Does Business
sponsored
3 Ways Data is Improving DoD Performance
JOIN THE DISCUSSION
By using this service you agree not to post material that is obscene, harassing, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable. Although Nextgov does not monitor comments posted to this site (and has no obligation to), it reserves the right to delete, edit, or move any material that it deems to be in violation of this rule.