CIO — Former commander of computer systems command, U.S. Army, longtime president of the information services division, United Services Automobile Association, and CIO of the Department of the Interior, Donald R. Lasher was inducted into the CIO Hall of Fame in 1997. In 2007, we asked Lasher what have been the biggest changes and advances in IT—the technology, the discipline and the CIO role—over the past 20 years.

 

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The biggest advance in technology, which has enabled all of the following changes, is the spectacular increase in microchip technology, both computer and memory. Without these advances all of the rest would not have happened—meaning that Moore's Law is still holding true.

As for the biggest change, hands down, it has to be the overwhelming domination of the Internet (World Wide Web) and all of its concomitant enablers, such as broadband, search engines and the various networking technologies. It has wide-ranging ramifications on every part of our society, worldwide—government, business, commerce, national cultures, warfare and personal lives. From this comes distributed processing and the emergence of Web-based applications, which are revolutionizing the software business.

Following closely behind is the wireless environment, whose potential has only partly been harnessed. Soon we will see the truly unwired enterprise, after which landline phones will become so comparatively costly they may eventually become museum pieces.

With the proliferation of the personal computer and all of the above technology, we have seen a profound effect on productivity and society—huge advances in medicine, science and almost any other field you can name—millions of lives saved or enhanced. On the other hand, terrorists also become enabled by it all.

Indeed, there is a very dark side to all the above. In the 1980s networks were largely the realm of the professional—scientists, engineers, military users and pretty much a trusted environment. Unfortunately, the nefarious activity the Internet allows has given rise to an entire security industry and has fundamentally changed the way (and openness with which) we do business. The resources that government, business and individuals must apply toward keeping data and networks secure is staggering, and growing. The security measures required to operate safely—and the consequences of not doing so—were not envisioned 20 years ago.

Another downside is that we have become so connected that we feel incomplete when we are without the cell phone, PDA, laptop or video game. Pretty much gone are the quiet walks or rides in the country, family days playing board games and just interacting with those close to us. Will this cause us to lose our own self-reliance and the ability to interact personally, human to human? You only need watch today's kids to know that interpersonal communication has suffered greatly.

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