Austin Jenkins of Northwest Public Radio produced a three part series that ran on KUOW, KPLU and elsewhere about the state data center project. It was prompted by this blog.

You can check out the links here. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Following two days in Olympia for the Legislature’s committee work, a number of people approached me about the stories, and many expressed support for a bold systems approach to how we manage technology. The state data center may be a symbolic representation of the need for courageous honesty about doing things differently, questioning old assumptions.

There is a strong case to be made that this is not just about money, it’s about the structural change in technology in the past six months as the cloud has matured, other jurisdictions have moved away from data centers, and we’ve learned more about our state’s needs.

And beyond the data center, of course, it’s time to talk about getting out of the business of providing commodity services when the cost and value proposition can’t be delivered effectively for taxpayers.

In the coming weeks, State Auditor Brian Sonntag will release an audit of how we fund, manage and operate IT in Washington. I don’t expect it to be complete or, frankly, extremely comprehensive, but it is a vital step toward transparency. I will be watching the audit carefully to see if it maps out with sufficient clarity the scale and scope of the inefficiencies in our current system.

Your partner in service,

Reuven.