TABC transitioned to more digital capabilities through a comprehensive Technology Transformation Initiative. First, TABC launched a user-centric redesign of the agency’s website that supported a new way for customers to do business with TABC. This was followed by the implementation of their new cloud-based Enterprise Data Solution infrastructure which includes business analytics and intelligence and a replacement for the existing data mart. The third component is the Alcohol Industry Management System (AIMS), a new online system for conducting licensing tasks, making payments, and completing reporting requirements. TABC’s Technology Transformation Initiative replaces 18 legacy systems, most of which have not been updated since 2005.

DOB has undertaken a full migration of systems to cloud services to improve availability, resiliency, and the agency’s security posture. As part of an overall technology modernization strategy, the DOB determined that the agency would reduce the cost to maintain servers with an equal or lower cost of operations as the agency transitioned away from on-premises modernization efforts. This strategy allows them to maintain control of internal and external networks while mitigating cybersecurity risks including ransomware and supply chain compromise. This incremental approach to modernization will help the agency to adopt and maintain appropriate technologies to support efficient, effective, and secure operations.

TxDOT delivered an award-winning, web-based application called TxDOTCONNECT to transform the way the agency plans and manages the state’s transportation programs and projects. TxDOTCONNECT replaces approximately 40 disparate legacy systems, including mainframes and interfaces to the agency’s data lake and geospatial warehouse to streamline data sharing. The system is available to 3,500 TxDOT employees and almost 1,000 external partners such as consultants, contractors, vendors, metropolitan planning organizations, local governments, and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). This modern, user-friendly system not only reduced the number of systems and costs, but also provides new functions and reporting capabilities, and improves communication and collaboration among TxDOT teams and external partners.

When the Texas State Board of Architectural Examiners and Texas State Board of Public Accountancy were required to relocate from a state-owned building to a private building, they saw an opportunity for a collaborative approach. They decided to assess co-location options for their network and servers and established a cooperative agreement. The process involved coordinating logistics, vendor selection, project management, and establishing the cabling, fiber, and circuit infrastructure needed for secure connectivity and redundancy. Each agency purchased and relocated more modern servers, assessed data, and inventoried physical assets to better align their information resources with their respective missions. Together they were able to overcome the challenges of a relocation and modernization effort during a pandemic. The results were improvements in data management, increased security, and reduced risk.

TXST moved its Student Information System (SIS), which had been hosted on-premise, to a managed cloud-based hosting environment. By moving to the cloud, it allowed the university to reduce licensing costs and the need for legacy database administration. While still in the early stages of being in production in the new environment, TXST is seeing application performance improvement in the cloud environment, less downtime of the system, and less use of in-house resources in maintaining patches and versions of the system.

UT at Austin’s Dell Medical School worked with experts from UT-Austin’s Information Technology Services (ITS), the Cockrell School of Engineering, and University of Arizona College of Medicine to find a way for patients to securely share their health data. Using blockchain technology, the group created a decentralized identity management prototype called MediLinker, which provides patients with the ability to share their information from their own blockchain wallet with trusted healthcare providers of their choice on the blockchain. Next, UT-Austin ITS parlayed this blockchain knowledge to create the Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) proof of concept, demonstrating authentication to a website using a verifiable credential held in an identity wallet. This project represents a forward looking vision for university identity and access management for defining and managing roles and access privileges, and the circumstances in which users are granted (or denied) those privileges. For users, SSI brings personal autonomy to the internet in a safe and trustworthy system of identity management.