Federal IT Officials Weigh In On Challenges Of Going Mobile

The cloud opens itself up to numerous opportunities in the federal government, particularly agencies that are constantly on the go and looking to utilize mobile applications.

IT professionals from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration and Department of Homeland Security talked about the possibilities at MeriTalk's Cloud Computing Brainstorm meeting in Washington, D.C.

They said these capabilities are an inherent part of an increasingly mobile federal workforce and American public -- and agencies will have to provide their staff secure solutions.

[Related: The Great Migration And Its Challenges: Federal Data Storage In The Cloud]

Tarrazzia Martin, strategic advisor for the Office of Strategic Planning and Management with HUD, said there has to be more dialogue for people in the industry to effectively communicate what mobility means and how it coincides with the mission of various government agencies.

"We have lots of dialogue around tools and toys but our customers miss that," she said. "The challenge is helping customers understand what mobility is and what the mission is."

Martin expanded on the needs of the housing department, emphasizing those workers who aim to stay connected as they travel to help families and even the homeless.

"The strategy at HUD is not an IT strategy but more, 'Where is the workforce going?'" she said. "We're learning the public has changed its requirements for housing. … (In the local community), we need to be out there with the public -- where they have Section 8 housing issues, where they have homelessness issues -- so we can actually see what's happening."

Daniel McCrae, director or IT service delivery with the Office of the CIO for NOAA, said he believes workforce field strategy is important for many government agencies, including his own. NOAA is already working with a mobile device management platform, he said, as their workers travel out to glaciers, on the seas and elsewhere around the globe, to conduct their work.

Robert Palmer, acting deputy executive director of the Enterprise Systems Development Office with Homeland Security, said he finds federal agencies using mobile are "still in the middle of this evolution."

"There's a lot of creativity going on right now in terms of how do we do use these commercial capabilities or what's available on the commercial side to better achieve the mission," he said. "… I don't think we've really settled on what the workforce looks like for the next five years. … As people start to embrace mobility, then the landscape starts to change."

McCrae touched on the security issues that come with the adoption of mobile, though he said the platform management is not difficult to execute.

"The challenge is what the organizational elements (are) that come to bear on what your security policy should be," he said.

Palmer said he has confidence the policy and enterprise mobility management will adapt to new developments. Then user authentication will have to be in use to secure connections, too, he added.

The officials noted while procurement continues to be an issue for these modern services, Martin said acquisition reform is "alive and well." McCrae said from his perspective there are still some aspects of the procedure that need to change.

"The challenge is in being able to articulate what it is you want to buy and you can't just have the deli mentality where you say, 'I'll take a pound of cloud and half a pound of mobile device management. Give me a little taste of that workplace as a service,'" he joked. "… Our role is as a business consultant and being able to articulate that so the acquisition folks don't just buy whatever they need."

Palmer said it will take a cultural shift to fully adopt these mobile practices.

"We have to react," he added. "That's on us as IT professionals to figure out how to enable that."

PUBLISHED SEPT. 11, 2014