‘IT Frankenstein’

Just as government IT organizations can gorge themselves on cloud-security tools, they can also make a mess of wireless technologies and internet-connected devices if they don’t take care to ensure that disparate technologies are integrated properly before they’re deployed.

Simply installing internet-connected sensors and other equipment meant to collect data for city agencies without accounting for how those devices communicate with each other can result in an “IT Frankenstein,” David Graham, the chief innovation officer of Carlsbad, California, said in February.

“Many of these things are adopted as a technology solution, but communications is an afterthought,” he said. “What that leads to is this Frankenstein-sort-of-network that cities have where communications is not the first thing that’s thought of, it’s just the way of connecting whatever technology is being used to solve the problem.”