Virginia

Ken Pfeil is exiting his role as Virginia’s chief data officer after three years in place. During that time, he helped establish the state’s Office of Data Governance and Analytics and launch the Commonwealth Data Trust.

The city is using a tool with artificial intelligence to respond to more than 40 percent of its nonemergency interactions — freeing public safety dispatchers from over 900 hours of talk time to focus on real emergency calls.

Authorities have identified the extortion operation behind the June cyber attack that took down the Internet in county offices and may have exposed both government employee and county resident data.

A new executive order in the state calls for the use of agentic AI within a regulatory review process aimed at reducing excessive requirements as part of a broader modernization effort in Virginia.

As extreme weather like Tropical Storm Barry — which contributed to the devastating flooding in Texas — becomes more frequent, satellite data contributes to giving forecasters the most accurate info.

The local government is working with state and federal agencies as it recovers from the data breach discovered in April. Officials have mailed notification letters to residents and will work to become more cyber resilient.

Google has purchased some 312 acres in Botetourt County, Va., for $14 million in order to potentially build a data center in the future, the county announced Tuesday.

More than 500 data centers populate Northern Virginia and about 200 of them are clustered around Ashburn and Sterling in east Loudoun County, earning the area the nickname Data Center Alley.

Drones as first responders is a growing program in police departments across the country, and Virginia Beach will soon be the first city in its region to use the technology.

In working with Kyndryl to replace its mainframe with the company’s MAX platform, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles looks to give visitors more options and have staff handle complex tasks.

The state wants to improve the customer experience for people who use the DMV, as well as boost security against digital criminals. This move is just the latest tech upgrade for DMVs in the U.S.

Charles City County, Va., is considering a large data center campus with the promise of a multimillion-dollar tax windfall, which would require rezoning a 515-acre tract of woods in a rural area.

Administrative support for the Office of Data Governance and Analytics has moved to the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, in an effort to improve efficiency and further enable teamwork.

CIO, Virginia

A bill introduced to the House of Representatives this week would ban cellphones from school classrooms, with exceptions for students with disabilities or other needs, such as lack of English language proficiency.

Harrison, who previously served as the IT director for nearby Stafford County, will step in as Fairfax County’s CIO this April, bringing more than two decades of tech expertise to the role.

The project would be located near the historic Belmont Estates, and it would include a campus of three data center buildings, totaling 1.5 million square feet across 181 acres.

While Spotsylvania County has already approved various data center developments, staff and the Board of Supervisors are still trying to hammer out regulations on the exploding industry.