From: InformationWeek/Government
Elena Malykhina
Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence, who retired last week, says efforts to modernize the Army’s IT infrastructure leaves an “unbreakable foundation” for the next decade.
Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence, who retired Oct. 2 as the Army’s CIO after two and half years of wrenching IT consolidation and budget cuts, praised the work of her colleagues, saying the Army’s recent IT modernization efforts have resulted in an “unbreakable foundation that will carry the Army forward for at least the next decade.”
Lawrence, who enlisted in the Army 41 years ago, brings to a close a career marked by a string of command assignments around the globe, including the Army Signal Command, where she earned wide respect for her grasp of the Army’s communications and IT systems. It also attracted the attention of the Secretary of the Army when he tasked Lawrence, beginning in March 2011, for leading a series of sweeping cost-saving initiatives to consolidate the Army’s data centers and modernize the Army’s network infrastructure.
“When I stepped into the CIO/G-6 position, I knew I would be in for one of the most challenging jobs I’d ever had. What I didn’t know is that it would also be one of the most rewarding,” said Lawrence in a farewell blog post.
Modernizing the Army’s network became a central project under an IT management reform plan released in February 2013. With that plan in place, the Army aims to save $1.5 billion annually beginning in fiscal year 2015 by managing IT and its network as a portfolio. According to Lawrence, the goal is to improve visibility of the Army’s network assets, increase efficiency, and improve IT network decision making. As part of that effort, Army leaders recently implemented an end-to-end portfolio management review process involving 31 organizations across the Army.
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