October 1, 2009 By Matt Williams
After leading Texas' massive IT consolidation and outsourcing initiative for nearly three years, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Brian Rawson resigned Wednesday, Sept. 30, as executive director of the state's Department of Information Resources (DIR).
Rawson will move to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and serve as its director of statewide data initiatives, according to a statement released by the DIR. Karen Robinson, director of administration and technology for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, was named interim state CTO. Rawson will remain with the DIR for several weeks to help with the transition, the agency said.
The statement gave no reason for Rawson's resignation, and a call to the Texas DIR wasn't returned late Wednesday afternoon.
An Aug. 31 state auditor's report criticized the DIR for failing to adequately oversee the $863 million data center consolidation. According to the Austin-American Statesman, deficiencies included not verifying outsourcing contractor IBM's performance data.
Texas hired IBM in 2007 to provide data center and disaster recovery services for 27 state agencies. The seven-year, $863 million deal calls for replacing 31 independent state data centers with two IBM-operated facilities.
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