“The departments of State and Veterans Affairs are transforming data management strategies as they adopt hybrid cloud models...” “Brian Merrick, director of the State Department’s Cloud Program Management Office, said that in a transition to cloud, leaders should focus on three key aspects: people, policy and technology...” “’It’s not a technology problem, it's a people issue, and it's really a change management effort,’ Merrick said. ‘We're figuring out how we provide scalable, shared infrastructure services so that we can abstract away some of the infrastructure pain from the business areas and [the workforce] can get to work faster and leverage the benefits of cloud while still maintaining control over their environments and their delivery to their customers.’ As the data ecosystem only gets more complex, the State Department is working to recruit talent that is capable of advanced data analytics, as well as driving policies that accelerate data sharing to effectively manage datasets. On the technical side, State is leveraging innovative tools like application programming interfaces (APIs) to make data more accessible...” “...‘We have a long way to go, but I think that's going to be the future — really looking at how do we protect [data] from a holistic standpoint, really focusing on where that data is living and providing that defensive depth to the data itself,’ Merrick said...” Read the full article here. Source: State Department, VA are Accelerating the Move to Hybrid Cloud – By Sarah Sybert, April 22, 2022. GovCIO.