Governor creates post of statewide IT director

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed an executive order establishing a new position of chief information officer for all state agencies and departments.

Schwarzenegger issued his order Tuesday, the same day The Bee reported that the state’s Employment Development Department is spending tens of millions of dollars on information technology projects while falling behind on assisting the unemployed.

The order also gives the state’s chief information officer authority over all IT infrastructure and shared services, including:

• Data and telecommunications networks.

• Data center services, including all equipment necessary to operate servers, storage, switches, security devices and mainframes.

• Hosting of what the executive order called “mission-critical and public-facing applications.”

• E-mail and other shared services.