Driving Technological Change by Cloud Infrastructure

Richard Cook, IT Director of Support Service and Architecture

Richard Cook is currently serving as the IT Director of Support Service and Architecture at the State of Tennessee where he is responsible for directing an API development team. He is a strategic visionary leader who leads IT security and cloud architecture teams of 30+ to support 4,000 TDHS employees. His responsibilities include IT modernization, help desk, and information security across the agency. He defines the IT vision and executes strategic plans to meet the agency’s goals. He has also helped stand up a TDHS IT Support Services team and led the creation of a help desk, through the process of moving the team to the cloud from on-prem. This has led to the creation of a robust service desk to offer help for the workers within the Department of Human Services.

With the disruption caused by the pandemic, how has the govt sector evolved in the past few years?

The pandemic has brought the remote working environment in several sectors. Many different areas of the state of Tennessee had to go remote and there were certain challenges like how we connect between groups, is the work done properly staying remote and what’s new coming on the way. These are some concerns that were experienced during the COVID era. There were COVID funds for families and in our Department of Human Services, we had to find ways to get those people qualified to get the funds. So during that period, we had to think out of the box from a normal government standpoint to get the work done rapidly. Now that we are in the post-pandemic period, we need to evaluate the decisions that we took during the time of crisis. We need to think about whether they are still valid or do we need to change some of them. Even after the major lockdown, we are still encouraging remote working but at the same time we need to ensure that by evaluating those decisions, the work needs to be improved with time.

Is there any project initiative that you have been working on and what are the technological and process elements you have leveraged to make it successful?

Over the last three years, we have shifted from running on-premises to the cloud architecture. Throughout this journey, we have adopted standardized technological strategies such as the agile methodology and DevSecOps testing to function effectively in the development, operation, testing, and security areas. Due to the day-to-day technological advancement, these are not complicated or new things but if not implemented properly, there would be hiccups and consequences. Hence, the adoption of these technologies has highly contributed to a successful transition from on-prem to complete cloud architecture.

What are some of the technological trends that excite you for the future of space?

From functionality and cost-benefit analysis, the exciting technological trend is the idea of being in the cloud. For more bandwidth, better RAM, processing power, and storage, the cloud is the best option rather than on-prem. Machine learning and open AI isn't novel and not going to have factors on everything. It doesn't take away from human needs but it provides them with more information at their fingertips.

Would you like to share a piece of advice from the experience you have for the community as to how can they approach this industry and can improve in the civic engagement space?

My only advice would be to improve yourself before thinking to change your surroundings. That would only be possible by a change from within. Leo Leo Tolstoy aptly said, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself”. Hence, we need to first evaluate ourselves and ask, am I doing a good job, am I giving my employees the things that they need to succeed, and am I implementing the right resources? If not then change for things that need to be changed and try improving one step at a time.