By: Hardik Bhatt, Leader, Digital Government, Amazon Web Services The Federal government isn’t alone in the digital transformation race – state and local agencies are sprinting towards the finish line as well. In this blog series, we’ll dig into a variety of hot topics related to IT modernization in state and local government including cloud […]

Hardik Bhatt is stepping down from his role as Illinois’ CIO to move to the private sector–joining Amazon in a public sector-facing role. To fill Bhatt’s shoes, current state CISO Kirk Lonbom is stepping up as interim CIO. Lonbom has worked in Illinois state government for more than a decade, and became state CISO in 2015.

Illinois CIO Hardik Bhatt announced that he is leaving the public sector for a new role at Amazon. While he didn’t discuss specifics of his new role, Bhatt said he would be joining a new public sector-facing team primarily focused on  the Internet of Things (IoT), transportation, and smart cities.

The state of Illinois is making a significant push to be a leader in blockchain technology. In December 2016, the state launched the Illinois Blockchain Initiative. Illinois’ CIO Hardik Bhatt believes blockchain has the capacity to significantly improve government operations.

Three years ago the state of Illinois ranked in the last quartile of states when it came to using IT efficiently. After two years on the job Hardik Bhatt, the state’s CIO, has transformed Illinois.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has declared April to be Information Technology month in order to bring attention the state’s IT efforts and increase the IT workforce.

The University of Illinois’ supercomputer program is working to secure state-collected data and organize information in order to find solutions to state problems.

States looking to become “smart” can look to smart cities initiatives to inform broader statewide practices, according to Illinois government officials.

The Illinois Department of Information and Technology has partnered with the State of Telangana, India, to advance their smart state initiatives.

When Illinois deployed its first state computer system in 1974, Hardik Bhatt was just 2 years old. Since then, Illinois has deployed thousands of systems–one for every 20 of the state’s 60,000 employees, to be exact–with little or no thought given to how they should all work together. Forty-two years later, Illinois’ IT challenges have […]