Cloud driving greater data efficiency, state officials say
Cloud migration has helped agencies in Virginia and Maryland to more efficiently and securely manage large volumes of data, state officials said at an event Thursday.
Aliscia Andrews, Virginia’s deputy secretary of homeland security, said the state’s cloud-first approach to data management increased organizational efficiency and data security. Andrews said she and her colleagues are trying to spread to localities in Virginia that aren’t necessarily up to speed on the tools available to them.
“Cloud is really changing the way that people look at data,” Andrews said on stage at the Nutanix Cloud Together Summit. “While we know as professionals that you can, in an instant, lose all of your data if you don’t have the proper security in place, I think some of our smaller localities are realizing just how bad that can truly get. That’s what we’re changing the perception on.”
Austin Miller, chief technology officer of the Maryland Transportation Authority, said at the event his agency’s transition to the cloud gathered data that was previously siloed, enabling his agency to gain new insights and use resources more efficiently.
The MTA is, for example, focused on making buses run on time and providing services that meet the needs of most riders, he said.
“Putting out a bus service for 12 riders isn’t utilizing taxpayer resources in the most fiscally responsible way,” Miller said.
