Topic: Infrastructure

Seminar Topics

Building a Secure and Sustainable Remote Work Environment

  Presented by Eric Finch • Chief Innovation and Technology Officer, City of Spokane

This presentation looks at how to build a more sustainable remote work environment, now that COVID-19 has made an enduring part of the technology support landscape. Using examples and lessons learned from Spokane and other organizations, we’ll give a quick look at the rapid expansion, evolving best practices for security and support, and what this means for technology and organizations going forward.

Eric Finch started as Chief Information & Technology Officer (CITO- a combined CIO/CTO position) for the City of Spokane, Washington in March 2015 and is chartered to bring a new level of integration and service partnership to the City with an increasing focus on citizen engagement and access to City services through Strategic Planning, Smart City, Open Data, Emergency Management, and other initiatives. In 2016 the department name “Information” was changed to “Innovation” to better represent the many varied service needs and strategic future focus of the department and role.

Mr. Finch transitioned from the U.S. Army in November 2014 as Chief Operating Officer responsible for planning and operations of a U.S. Army Division of over 12,000 personnel. This included a final tour to Afghanistan in 2013 where he was responsible for all operations for two provinces in southern Afghanistan. Mr. Finch is currently an active member of the California Army National Guard in State level Army Operations.

In his previous 25-year civilian technology career, Eric was an I.T. Director for a Fortune 500 financial company and principal for a small technology and management consulting firm for 12 years. His roles included providing strategic direction and tactical leadership for information technology and innovation in the public and private sectors. His private sector work included consulting on technology, economic development, and tax base development for hundreds of City and County government organizations.

Eric has a Master’s of Business from the University of Southern California (USC) and holds over a dozen technical, management, and FEMA emergency management certifications including Project Management Professional and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Let’s Look to the Future, Shall We?

  Presented by INTERFACE Advisory Council

You were ready for a power outage. Cooling equipment has worked properly in your server room or data center. You had plenty of backup in the cloud and you felt good about your BC/DR plan, until a pandemic hit. The sudden shift to remote working for many industries forced rapid change for IT staffs to keep businesses functional. Some of these changes were temporary, while some longer lasting.

Join the INTERFACE-Spokane Advisory Council for a look at what lies ahead with remote working. How are you adjusting your security procedures? Do you know if your end-users will return to the office? The dreaded elephant in the room will be addressed as well – BUDGETS! What do you need? What is expected of your IT staff? You will get tips on what has worked and what still is a challenge in keeping your users active and ensuring your business is fully operational.

Presenters:
Laurel Caldwell • Director of ITS, Latah County, Idaho
Carol DeMuth • Programmer & Analyst, Spokane Regional Health District
Clint Hagen • Manager of Information Technology, NEW Health

Office 365 Security Best Practices: At the Office, at Home, and on the Road

  Presented by Mimecast

Cyber-hygiene has become a source of great concern of late. And while the Office 365 suite has helped communication and collaboration from multiple location points (at the office, at home, and on the road) there are still security concerns that must be mitigated. In this presentation, we will hear best practice suggestions for remaining safe while using Office 365. First, we’ll talk about security attitudes, then review CISA concerns with Office 365, and finally offer best practice suggestions and thought leadership. This presentation will be driven by J. Peter Bruzzese… cyber-security advisor and 8x awarded Microsoft MVP (Exchange/Office 365).

SD-WAN Edge Transformation for the Cloud-First Enterprise

  Presented by Silver Peak

As cloud adoption and SD-WAN innovation hastens, global enterprises are transforming how they build and secure wide area networks. Leveraging automation, enterprises can deploy, connect and secure hundreds of sites per week, a feat not possible with a traditional device-centric approach.

During this session, we’ll discuss how the unification of SD-WAN, WAN optimization, routing and security in a single, centrally orchestrated platform:

  • Delivers superior application performance wherever apps are hosted
  • Increases the quality of experience for end users and for IT
  • Simplifies branch WAN edge architecture

Office 365 Security Best Practices: At the Office, at Home, and on the Road

  Presented by Mimecast

Cyber-hygiene has become a source of great concern of late. And while the Office 365 suite has helped communication and collaboration from multiple location points (at the office, at home, and on the road) there are still security concerns that must be mitigated. In this presentation, we will hear best practice suggestions for remaining safe while using Office 365. First, we’ll talk about security attitudes, then review CISA concerns with Office 365, and finally offer best practice suggestions and thought leadership. This presentation will be driven by J. Peter Bruzzese… cyber-security advisor and 8x awarded Microsoft MVP (Exchange/Office 365).

Improving the Government Experience

  Presented by Mike Hussey • Chief Information Officer, State of Utah
Phil Bates • Chief Information Security Officer, State of Utah

State Government faces many challenges when it comes to providing services to citizens. Join Michael Hussey to find out what the State of Utah is doing to stay secure, adopt innovative technologies, collaborate with public sector and private sector, adapt to the new way of working, and upskill employees. Michael will also be joined by Phil Bates, Chief Information Security Officer for the State of Utah.

Michael Hussey was appointed Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Department of Technology Services in October 2015. As CIO, he is responsible for the administration and supervision of a dedicated IT workforce that provides innovative services to Utah agencies and residents.

The Department of Technology Services is the IT service provider for over 20 state agencies in Utah. Utah is a leader in providing innovative, secure, and cost-effective technology solutions that are convenient and empower partner agencies to better serve the residents of the state. Mike has led Utah in eGovernment to provide over 1,300 services online, modernized all mainframe applications, made developments for data center migration to cloud, and has created efficiencies through easy-to-use, accessible, and innovative government services. Mike currently serves as the Vice President of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), the premier network and resource for state CIOs and leading advocate for technology policy at all levels of government.

Hussey was born in West Covina, California and moved to Utah with his family at the age of 15. He and his wife are the parents of five children. He is a loyal University of Utah sports fan. Hussey has a passion for learning and enjoys staying current on emerging technologies.

Phil Bates is the Chief Information Security Officer for the Department of Technology Services, State of Utah. He has been involved in Cyber Security for many years, as the IT Director for the Department of Public Safety Phil aided in the creation of the Utah Cyber Task Force. Phil began his career in Law Enforcement, retiring as a Lieutenant from the West Jordan Police Department. While at West Jordan, Phil directed the deployment of the first large-scale use of Commercial Mobile Data for Public Safety in the US.

Architecting for the Agentless

  Presented by Gigamon

Today’s networks are swarming with IoT, OT, and virtual devices of every size and shape. As they have proliferated, and the security attack surface has likewise increased, the market has responded with a wide variety of technologies to help understand, manage, and secure just what is on your network. This is the rise of the technologies classified as “agentless” and there is a good chance you will be looking, now or in the future, at a project that comprises such technologies. While much of what is fundamentally required to enable these technologies is not new, organizations struggle with trying to implement these on an “ad hoc” basis, with little thought to future considerations or scale. This presentation will take about a more strategic approach to handling these implementations, what a visibility fabric is, and how today’s organizations can architect their environments for their future needs.

Zero-Trust Network Access

  Presented by Fortinet

Controlling users and devices on today’s networks is challenging. Many types of users requiring different levels of access need an automated solution. Devices are sneaking onto networks without approval and require visibility and control. Learn how Zero-Trust Network Access solution addresses the issue of knowing who, what, where and when and controlling everyone and everything on and off the network.

Unified Endpoint Management

  Presented by Quest Software

This presentation highlights the reasons and need for Unified Endpoint Management in your business strategy. This presentation’s sole purpose is to educate C-level and system administrators of the need for UEM as well as what aspects are important. One of the problems with endpoint management today is the proliferation of endpoints. During this global health crisis especially, we are seeing a large work-from-home movement in businesses all over the world. In order to combat this issue, you must have an endpoint management strategy that works not only on the network but off of it as well.

Digital Transformation: The ASU University Technology Office Story

  Presented by Chris Richardson • Deputy CIO of Development, Mobility, and Smart Cities • ASU

COVID-19 has accelerated digital transformation to a point we thought we’d reach in 2025. But the groundwork for such a leap was laid some time before at the ASU University Technology Office. Deputy CIO IT Development, Mobility and Smart Cities, Chris Richardson, will share how the culture of innovation at UTO, and its agile mindset, represent an exciting new definition of digital transformation.

Chris Richardson is the Deputy Chief Information Officer Development, Mobility, and Smart Cities at Arizona State University, organized as part of ASU’s University Technology Office. Mr. Richardson and his team are responsible for aligning with key stakeholders to lead the strategy, upgrade cycle, new functionality enhancements, and maintenance of a number of Enterprise applications across the diverse landscape of ASU; key applications to note include myASU, eAdvisor, uAchieve, Salesforce, and Peoplesoft. In addition to development and business analysis with these and other applications, Mr. Richardson’s team is advancing the landscape and vision of mobile applications and standards, web standards, and a User Experience Center of Excellence.

Chris Richardson recently joined ASU from Honeywell where he held several positions over an 11- year career. His most recent role was Senior Director of IT Service Delivery for the Performance Materials and Technologies business group, global accountability of all application and infrastructure operations for a $12B organization. As Director Service Operations Support of the centralized infrastructure organization, his team supported more than 120,000 employees globally for their Service Desk and desktop support experiences, the identity and access management for their systems, the monitoring of critical infrastructure, and all ITIL process ownership for incident, problem, knowledge, access and event management. He has also held responsibility as Director for Desktop Services, Senior Program Manager, IT Audit Manager, European Manager Co-Sourcing, and Senior Business Analyst in the Transportation Systems business group.

Mr. Richardson has also been responsible for product and web development at his own companies, Tru Realty and ASPACT Schools (no longer in existence), as well as at Talisma Corporation and License Online.

Chris holds a double Bachelor of Science in Zoology and Fisheries from the University of Washington, a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Puget Sound, and a Master of Business Administration (MIS, Finance, and Entrepreneurship emphases) from the University of Arizona. During Chris’ working career he has obtained PMP, CIPP, and ITIL Expert Lifecycle certifications; he was also a part of Honeywell’s Pathways, IT Leadership Development, and HITS Leadership IT Functional training programs.