Executive Mosaic is honored to introduce Raj Iyer, chief information officer of the U.S. Army, for the second consecutive year, as an inductee into the 2022 edition of the Wash100 — a group of highly esteemed leaders who continually drive growth and innovation in the government contracting sector.
Iyer became the Army’s first civilian CIO in November 2020 after the separation of the formerly consolidated CIO/G-6 organization into two separate functions and came from Deloitte Consulting, where he previously worked with the military service on information technology projects in managing director and senior manager roles. Cast a vote for Iyer as your favorite influential GovCon leader on Wash100.com.
In 2021, Iyer established the Army Digital Transformation Strategy to align service technology, processes and culture with the rapidly changing digital landscape to achieve overmatch in joint multidomain operations.
“Going digital is a mindset, it’s culture change,” the CIO said in October. “It’s about how we can fundamentally change how we operate as an Army through transformative digital technologies, empowering our workforce, and re-engineering our rigid institutional processes to be more agile.”
A key component of the ADTS is an initiative to pursue a unified cloud IT environment that will centralize computer systems, cloud services and cybersecurity and data standards to support multidomain operation requirements. In March 2021, the service branch upgraded its Enterprise Cloud Management Office to function as a field operating agency to help the office of Iyer organize enterprise cloud programs.
The CIO implemented a cybersecurity policy to prevent civilian, military and contractor personnel who use internet of things devices while remotely connected to Department of Defense networks from leaking official data amid the pandemic.
“We’re elevating and expanding our protocols to make telework offices more secure for our current and future digital Army workforce,” Iyer said in a May memo.
Iyer gave a keynote address at GovCon Wire-hosted Army: IT Management and Transformation Forum in June to chart the branch’s single integrator plan for “accelerating our cloud infrastructure and using data as a strategic asset to achieve interoperability.” During the virtual event, he noted the service aims to incorporate new technology such as artificial intelligence systems into its digital initiatives through 2028.
In a November FedTech Magazine interview, Iyer cited readiness and modernization, process reform and workforce upskilling as the main objectives of the new strategy his office established.
“We also want to establish a closer relationship with industry, to bring in talent for us and to send our people out to industry through rotations so they can gain the experience they need in an industry,” he told the publication.
The establishment of fully accredited cloud environments with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure was one of the Army CIO office’s key achievements during 2021, Iyer said during Federal News Network’s Profiles in Excellence CIO Achievements webinar. Other accomplishments he mentioned were the development of a concept to unify 42 different service networks throughout the U.S. and the deployment of a remote environment with Office 365 collaboration tools.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Raj Iyer and the Army organization for their 2022 Wash100 selection.
Raj Iyer is among the federal information technology leaders invited to join the Potomac Officers Club’s 3rd Annual CIO Forum on April 26 to lend his insights to a panel discussion themed “IT Modernizations: Navigating the Opportunities Ahead.” Join the in-person event at the Hilton-McLean in Virginia to hear from government and GovCon leaders on the current IT landscape.
