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Apr 06 2018
Management

Dana Deasy New DoD CIO

The JPMorgan Chase executive will assume command of the Pentagon's IT as it prepares for a massive cloud contract.
Phil Goldstein
by

Phil Goldstein is a former web editor of the CDW family of tech magazines and a veteran technology journalist. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and their animals: a dog named Brenna, and two cats, Grady and Princess.

The Defense Department is getting a permanent CIO at last. 

Dana Deasy, who most recently served as CIO at JP Morgan Chase, will become the Pentagon’s new CIO sometime in early May, DOD spokeswoman Dana White announced at a news briefing on April 5. White noted that one of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s priorities is “reforming the way we do business” and that “in order to do that, we need top-notch talent.”

Deasy “will be responsible for how we manage and use information, communications and cybersecurity,” White said, adding, “This is particularly important as we adopt cloud technology to make more informed and timely decisions on the battlefield.”

Essye Miler has been serving as acting CIO at the Pentagon since early December. Miller had been serving as the department’s CISO and deputy CIO. She moved into a position vacated by John Zangardi, who President Donald Trump appointed to the role of Department of Homeland Security CIO in October. The DOD has been without a permanent CIO since Terry Halvorsen stepped down in February 2017. 

Deasy comes on board just as the Pentagon is ramping up efforts to award a massive, enterprisewide cloud contract worth billions of dollars, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI. The contract has attracted controversy, especially over whether the DOD will carry out a truly competitive bidding process. 

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