On Monday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam issued Executive Order Nineteen, which directs the use of cloud technologies in the Commonwealth’s IT services. The executive order says Virginia must “keep pace with the marketplace” and that the order is designed to ensure the Commonwealth “aggressively incorporates the use of cloud technologies.” The order also stresses that cloud services must be deployed in a way that protects the privacy and security of Commonwealth and citizen data.  

The Howard County, Md., government streamlined its IT operations and cut its contract approval times to a fraction of what they were by building out workflows and bundling business processes on a cloud platform, said Howard County’s Deputy CIO Tom Yeatts.