A technology infrastructure bill – HB 5301 is a conforming bill sponsored by Representative Blaise Ingoglia that has made some traction. It is currently waiting on a signature by the governor to become law. Representative Ingoglia explained that the important part of the bill is that it moves the state towards utilizing cloud technology which could save the government several million dollars. He said that if state agencies migrated to commercial cloud products, then tax dollars could be saved.
The bill would encourage agencies to build future products with the cloud in mind or at the very least run a cost benefit analysis on when to move their infrastructure to the cloud.
Ingoglia stated that agency costs for maintaining the current infrastructure is cost prohibitive and has risen 80-150%.
The original bill would have eliminated the Agency for State Technology (AST), simultaneously creating the Office of Technology and Data Solutions (OTDS). Ingoglia said that the elimination of the AST along with the adoption of cloud first technology would streamline data operations and save taxpayers $8.5 Million.
While the elimination of AST is currently off the table, conversion to the cloud is still a possibility.
HB 5301 also creates a cybersecurity task force, but Ingoglia emphasized that the major cost saver is cloud conversion.