AI and the Cloud.  Data centers and the computer room. Putting all of your data security into the hands of someone you do not know at an HR level is as secure as giving a gang member the keys to the jail.

 

I will attempt express my extreme displeasure with Iowa Governor (my governor) Kim Reynolds and the outsourcing of executive branch level IT services in Iowa to Cognizant Government Solutions and Amazon Web Services.

 

I have been working in IT since 1973 when it was called Data Processing.  It became IT when the facilities department gave the phone systems to the Data Processing department.  Throughout the history of IT and Data Processing there has been this constant philosophical fight of doing it in house or outsourcing.  From the early computer through the early 1980’s the bulk of development was geared towards large computer defined program processes done individually by companies and government.

 

These entities looked at their operations, defined priorities and what could be done with computer processes.  While there were similarities, there were differences. It was these complexities that allowed those who took the financial risk to offer extreme caution in who they hired and also try to keep the employees happy as the expertise gained was hard to replace without a mentoring period.

 

Companies who felt they were not adept at managing this new development process would hire outside contractors to write and maintain the in house systems.  While there was remote capabilities in the 1960’s and 1070’s it was a bit slow and impractical for most daily work.  Contractors were in many cases, when it came to implementations and operations, in house where they could be observed.

 

A shift started in the late 1970’s and took hold in the 1980’s.  What were perceived as applications similar to all types of business and government entities were moved from in house development teams to vendors in the way of prepackaged software.  I did work for an accounting software company and was familiar with competitors. The accounting software company I was employed by included the source software with the package that allowed customers to modify the software to fit their needs. Other companies took the approach that you were to modify your business to conform to their software.

 

I also worked a while at a company that had computers power-grid monitoring systems. In both cases the source code was included and modifications were allowed.  I would say that in both cases there was a cutoff for support after the modifications. You made your modifications in a way that if you wanted to take advantage of newer versions the method to retrofit could be controllable.

 

Technology at the time of these jobs involved centralized computer systems.  The 1980’s was also a decade of computer technology breakthroughs. Hardware and operating systems were dominating. Silicon Valley got that name from the various hardware companies that were in the area.  There were a number of operating systems such as CPM, MPM, Radio Shack TRS 80, RM COS by Texas Instruments, Oasis, UNIX (the predecessor to Linux), the Apple I platform that eventually morphed first in the Apple Lisa then the Macintosh.

 

IBM was a large scale computer maker that wanted to protect its computers lines at the time creating a very minimalist computer that was effectively useless without the creativity of add on makers. It was by specification a single floppy disk computer with some possible features.  Hard drive makers made add on hard drives.  It was effectively a single user computer in an environment where multi user computers were dominant.  Microsoft, an upcoming company that had started in Albuquerque New Mexico before the founders decided to eventually move back to their homes around Redmond Washington, made the base operating system, DOS (actually Bill Gates bought the core and modified it for IBM), which allowed extension and flexibility, the opposite of the Apple model.

 

Seeing all of these disjointed single user computers Novell Incorporated made a slick network system with a central hard drive server run connecting multiple standalone computers first, CPM, then DOS. Digital Equipment Corporation was improving their networking capabilities allowing multiple host computers control multiple workstations but also talk to each other.

 

What we get to today is eventually Microsoft cleaned up its Lan Manager which was a very week environment and created Windows NT Server which with its version progressions brings us effectively where we are today.

 

Different departments create file servers, application servers, back end and front end server processes. As in most in the computer world individual groups created their own smaller environment then over the years they go from a decentralized management to a centralized management.  Department A had data that department B could use.  In the past Department B would re-enter the data.  The programmers created the ability to share that information.  This plus use of the Internet, a public data highway, new levels of who can see and who can’t see programming is now a part of the picture.

 

If your head is not spinning yet, allow me to continue.

 

The State of Iowa just like most business and other government entities have created systems of which they are dependent upon for day to day operations.  Prior to 1980 many governments and businesses were dependent upon workers to run machines and information not programmed processes and computers. The difference is when a person decided to leave or retire a new person of a similar structural makeup would come in and be trained to do the task at had.  With computers processes it is different.

 

In the eighties and early nineties there was a spreadsheet program called Lotus 123.  It was “The” accountant’s tool. Files were kept on floppy disk for future reference in the Lotus 123 format.  Then Lotus 123 disappeared. The new kid, Excel could read the basics of the Lotus 123 file but it worked differently. A technical conversion was necessary to make it work.

 

The State of Iowa is recognizing that there is a need for technical conversion as some of their systems are old and running using hardware and operating software that is soon to be unavailable due to the marketing change of Microsoft and new environmental needs for computer.   In other words, Windows NT does not exist, Windows XP does not exist. I could continue to bore you with the specific obsolescence details but you should be able to understand what I mean.

 

Iowa at this juncture can do a few things.  They can use their current staff handle the new and improved.  They can look at their needs and start the process submitting proper budgets, etc.  I did this for a while at the Minnesota Department of Revenue as a contracted employee, which if I did not leave the work force to be a stay at home dad, I would now be a State of Minnesota employee as Governor Jesse Ventura said if you are doing work for the state you are employed by the state and got rid of IT related contractors.

 

Iowa could use their existing employees and supplement with contract help to fill knowledge gaps.

 

Governor Reynolds and who else in the Iowa Executive State Office can do what they are doing, falling prey to the “Rainmaker” hoping it will work.  The “Rainmaker” is Cognizant Government Solutions and Amazon Web Services.

 

It is not smart to concentrate this important a task into this arrangement.  First, there is the institutional knowledge that the existing support staff has had.  If there is a reduction in personnel has been desired, ongoing definition and systems structure needs to be analyzed and modernized.  It is unfortunate but as long as I have worked in IT it has always been defined as an expense center with too many in management not allowing existing staff to learn and migrate to new tools.

 

While good management practices require continuous review, this measure as reported seems to be the usual shoot from the hip decision.  Dump these employees and the knowledge needs to be relearned instead of continuing on a mentoring process.  Also, what real value do these two contractors bring to the table?

 

It is argued that having Amazon Web Services control the server infrastructure and Cognizant with the day to day operations is a good thing.  But is it?

 

Amazon Web Services has a very bad event in their history that tells me they are not to be trusted. January 6, 2021 Amazon Web Services turned off one of their customers, social media platform Parler,  for reasons that are at best political.  For this I object to them being an approved Iowa vendor.  They cited public safety and breach of service during the DC protests. but this was a cover as many were using the platform for safety communication and general interest conversation. There was no real warning, just cutoff.  It is also now known the January 6 2021 incidents were one of the most government corrupted events with collusion of the FBI and the Democratic party.

 

I trust real Iowans with my IT rather than Amazon Web Services.

 

Cognizant is a most interesting situation.  My question is what exactly is the value add they give besides preferring H-1B visa holders.  Reynolds seemed to think that the work was going to be continued to be done by Iowas, but Cognizant has a history of preferring H-1B visa holders.  Reynolds seems short sited on this one as Cognizant can structure some tasks away from Iowa and show that they are not using H-1B visa holders for “Iowa work”.  A shell game at best.

 

Let’s also address the Iowa brain drain that all these politicians campaign on.  How many of the affected by layoffs will stay in Iowa?  Also, what is the true economic impact?

 

Having experience working for both the contractor and the customer I can guarantee that I would not pick this arrangement.  There is enough IT brainpower in the State of Iowa that a group could be out together to analyze the true needs and audit the current staffing.  These questions need to be answered. First, can the two vendors guarantee a secure and continuing operational IT service?  Amazon Web Services has proven they are not trustworthy.  Second, can the two vendors guarantee hiring Iowa residents for the Iowa project?.  Cognizant has a record of distrust in this area.  Plus, using “Cloud services” that can be maintained form anywhere, need for Iowa residents is minimized.  Third, for both, what if they change their terms of service mid stream, or even more crushing, run into financial trouble and close their doors or sit in perpetual reorganization?  Remember thews services that said they will store your photos?  Are they all around? Looking at the health care funding issue, see what happens when the vendor does not have their resources proper?

 

While I do not have a pension I see the benefit of a pension system.  Ask most members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives.  Pulling 200 employees out of IPERS harms the structure of retirement systems that need employees contributing to pay in part current recipients.  Watch that what happens next is the pension system freezing and being told to use one of the Music Man style retirement shells.

 

The 401 K system was designed to offload continuing investment tools for retirement for the common man with a risk based system that not all retirees can handle.  Instead of professional managers running pension funds we have a multitude of people hiring consultants to navigate the 401 K system.  My experience that for many this is bad.  People including myself at that detail level many times to not run risk properly.

 

Pension funds just like Social Security get into trouble when the money flow continuum is shrunk by decreasing participants.  This decrease is caused by not expanding the economy and low child birth of future participants.  By the State of Iowa eliminating 200 pension participants, the system will be put at financial risk.  Is this added to the cost of the new system?

 

One last note.  I personally am sick and tired of the Data Processing and IT industry being so controlled by decision makers and management types who don’t really work on a detail enough level to make proper decisions.  I am tired of managers who cannot run their own power point presentation tell anyone what services or products to buy.  They sit with their noses in arbitrary spreadsheets and do not get a feel for what needs to be done. They are given buzzwords and promises.

 

Remember, the “Rainmaker” only had it rain once.  Law enforcement was chasing him for fraud in numerous jurisdictions.