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Louisiana Consolidation Illuminated Need to Retire Old Tech

State Chief Information Officer Dickie Howze has a ready answer when asked which technology the state currently uses that he'd like to cast into retirement.

Louisiana Chief Information Officer Dickie Howze
When Lousiana consolidated its IT infrastructure a few years back, the state realized millions of dollars in savings. But uniting so many distinct and disparate systems introduced a lot of complexity, and few CIOs would welcome the opportunity to add additional legacy systems to their portfolio. 

When GT checked in with CIO Dickie Howze at the annual NASCIO conference in Austin last October, we asked if there was any old tech that Howze would rather leave behind. For Howze, the question was a simple one.

"There are a large number of applications in our Public Safety Department that are built on really old technologies," he said. "It's very, very hard to maintain and modernize those systems, mainly because there's so many of them." Hear the rest of his answer in the video above. 

 

Noelle Knell is the executive editor for e.Republic, responsible for setting the overall direction for e.Republic’s editorial platforms, including Government Technology, Governing, Industry Insider, Emergency Management and the Center for Digital Education. She has been with e.Republic since 2011, and has decades of writing, editing and leadership experience. A California native, Noelle has worked in both state and local government, and is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, with majors in political science and American history.