AWARDS & RECOGNITION
2010 Awards: Risk Management Initiatives
RECIPIENT:
Michigan - The Government Cloud Protection Program: Disaster Recovery Services Transformed for the Perfect Storm
Michigan has consolidated data centers, information, and telecommunications into a significant “government cloud” that supports all essential functions of the state. These enhancements have saved hundreds of millions of dollars, but risks have increased, creating the potential of a “perfect storm” to disrupt critical business operations. The Government Cloud Protection Program addresses both traditional and emerging risks in a comprehensive and holistic manner. This program sets a new standard for ensuring that end-to-end government technology is reliable despite unprecedented change.
From the events of 9/11/2001 to the 2003 power blackout of the Northeast, from ice storms in 2008 to the 195,580 daily email and spam attempts in 2009, Michigan is bombarded by a wide variety of threats to operational stability. As technology solutions became more vital to achieve business results, Michigan’s corresponding state of readiness grew to meet these expectations. From 13 terabytes of storage in 2001 to 4.4 petabytes and “storage as a service” in 2010, the state’s data has expanded at exponential rates. Other challenges include regulatory requirements for applications, email, and electronic records. On top of that, the state faces cable cuts, hardware failures, network changes, computer viruses, and hackers seeking financial gain. In addition, Michigan has seen historic budget shortfalls over the past decade. This created another “storm” to traverse in safeguarding mission critical data and functions.
As a result, Michigan developed policies, procedures and strategies to address risks inherent with consolidation opportunities. This program enabled upgrading the monitoring and management of essential business functions, establishing disaster recovery plans for the protection of critical information in our government cloud. Despite revenue cuts, the state significantly improved risk management.
The solution has the potential to be a national model for the reduction of risks associated with consolidation, shared services and managing cloud computing environments. The processes and practices Michigan established create new opportunities to reach local partners, address emerging federal cloud computing requirements and offer important risk reduction to complex enterprise technology architectures.
Governor Jennifer M. Granholm, State of Michigan
FINALISTS:
Click on the title to download program submission.
North Carolina
Protecting, Securing and Making NC Voter Data Available
West Virginia
Cyber Security Program
OTHER NOMINATIONS:
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Idaho
Secure State Network Working Group
Kentucky
Kentucky Compliance-Audit Management Tool
Minnesota
Continuous Enterprise Vulnerability and Threat Management Program
New York
Critical Infrastructure-Suspicious Activity Reporting (CI-SAR)
Oklahoma
Disaster Recovery Exercises
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Automated Incident Response
Tennessee
Enterprise Information Security Program
