Page 8 - FCW, March/April 2018

Trending
DHS to launch
new cloud
steering group
The Department of Homeland Security is launching a cloud steering group as part of its cloud computing strategy.
“There are 584 applications roughly in DHS, \\\[and\\\] there are 29 applications across the components at headquarters that are currently in the cloud right now,” DHS CIO John Zangardi said at AFCEA’s Cyber Summit in February. “That’s not a signi cant number when you think about it, out of 584. We need to do better.”
The cloud steering group would operate at the undersecretary level, he said, “to make sure that we take advantage and cut across all the equities that are out there and start moving this forward.” It would include executives such as the chief procurement officer, chief security of cer, chief privacy of cer, CIOs and their deputies.
The move comes as the Defense Department, where Zangardi served as acting CIO before his move to DHS, is elding a high-level cloud steering group to come up with a plan for large- scale cloud adoption. DOD’s effort, which the Defense Digital Service is leading, is holding an industry day in March to update vendors on its plans.
Zangardi also said he was considering adding a virtual trusted interface connection, similar to DOD’s cloud access point, and is working with vendors to reduce the complexity and latency that happens during cloud migrations.
— Lauren C. Williams
$96M is the Energy Department’s scal 2019 request to fund a new cyber of ce
HR managers want fewer hiring regs, more exibility
As the average number of days agencies take to hire employees continues to creep upward, federal managers are calling for fewer rules and regulations and more hiring events.
At a March 1 hearing held by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management Subcommittee, Chairman James Lankford (R-Okla.) called the government’s systemic struggles to ll open positions a hiring crisis. The average time to hire has steadily risen
that although federal agencies have important considerations that the private sector does not have, “the laws and regulations governing hiring are complex and in need of reform.”
Angela Bailey, chief human capital of cer at the Department of Homeland Security, added, “We lose the vast majority of the people whenever they have to go to the \\\[Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing\\\] system, and they have to fill out the background system paperwork. They give up.”
The best and brightest candidates will not wait around for three and a half months, and our strategy cannot rely
on hoping that they do.
to 106 days in 2017 from the 100 days it took in 2016, he added.
“This is not sustainable,” he said. “The best and brightest candidates will not wait around for three and a half months, and our strategy cannot rely on hoping that they do.”
Mark Reinhold, associate director of employee services at the Office of Personnel Management, testi ed
— SEN. JAMES LANKFORD (R-OKLA.)
Instead, Bailey said she would like to see more hiring done in the style of hiring fairs, where agencies have face-to-face meetings with candidates and make tentative job offers on the spot.
“I think you’d cut out at least six weeks” of bureaucratic back-and-forth, she said.
— Chase Gunter
MetroStar Systems
@MetroStarSystem
Ben Scribner @DHSgov, presents the FedVTE. uslearning.gov website, stating that it provides free access to over 60 courses to help qualify people for #cybersecurity services and to help those people be at the forefront of their careers. #FCWcitizen
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8 March/April 2018 FCW.COM
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