Next generation North Carolina: Desktop, mobility, identity management

For North Carolina, the legislature-mandated information technology department consolidation is only one piece of the puzzle.

Even while the state’s Department of Information Technology focuses on innovation through the state’s innovation center, North Carolina is still focusing on improving the back office service delivery to state employees, deputy state chief information officer Tracy Doaks told StateScoop in a video interview in September.

Not only will those improvements improve worker morale, they’ll save money as well.

“There’s lots of technology solutions out there that claim to decrease costs,” Doaks said, mentioning cloud services. “I think those things are great, and will definitely drive down costs.”

But it’s more than that, Doaks said. That strategy includes investments in utility computing — a “hyper-converged appliance” in the state’s environment where the government only pays for consumption, allowing customers to enjoy flexibility and reduced costs.

The state is also working on next-generation desktop services, and with that comes a fresh look at mobility.

“Even its name, ‘desktop,’ makes it sound archaic and definitely in need of renovation,” Doaks said. “We’re going to look at [virtual desktop infrastructure] as well as enterprise mobile management, [bring your own device] policies and several different support models that will allow our customers to be more versatile in how they collaborate with each other.”

With all of those advancements coming, cybersecurity needs to underpin them all, Doaks said.

“Probably time for a refresh [on identity management],” Doaks said. “I’m very excited at looking at the next generation there to add some functionality for our customers and citizens that use that.”

Doaks acknowledged her to-do list was quite long, but said “even if we get 60 percent of that done,” she’ll be excited.