Editor’s Note: This is the first of a five-part series interviewing the top IT people at Rhode Island’s biggest technology employers.
The Naval Undersea Warfare Center, with 535 local information technology employees, ranked No. 5 on Providence Business News’ Rhode Island CIOs list.
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Its primary uses of IT include customer service/customer management; human resources/accounting; production; research and development; and staff communications.
Robert Bernardo, chief information officer since May 2005, took a minute to discuss the NUWC’s tech initiatives.
Bernardo is responsible for the IT infrastructure for scientific and technical information; computer support; and communications and systems for the U.S. fleet, managing the telecommunications systems, the Video Teleconference Program, and the Message Center with an annual budget of $4.9 million out of a $16.2 million departmental budget.
He joined Division Newport as a computer scientist in 1985 and “topped out” as an ND-4 “due to his sustained superior performance,” his NUWC biography said.
PBN: What unique technology-related challenges have you and your organization been able to solve in 2011?
BERNARDO: I think our most unique challenge was in our selection and deployment of a full disk encryption (FDE) solution to all our mobile devices. The risk to the organization was that having a laptop or Blackberry accidentally lost or stolen meant not just loss of the hardware but also any information that happened to be stored on it.
Protecting our information is on top of our priority list; encrypting data at rest provides a level security that enables our workforce the flexibility to be mobile. So we engaged in a selection process that eventually led to our implementation plan for an enterprise hardware/software FDE solution across more than 2,600 devices. Knowing how our information is encrypted makes me feel a lot better about the security of traveling employees and the laptops they carry.
PBN: What’s on the horizon for 2012?
BERNARDO: The Navy and Department of Defense are always looking for ways to reduce IT costs while improving services and security, and we’ll be especially focused on that in 2012. One way we’ll accomplish this is by terminating expensive legacy systems and migrating their functions into more cost-effective solutions. We’ll also look at the application hosting and cloud computing opportunities offered by DoD and the Navy, both for reducing costs and expanding access. And finally we’ll be looking to streamline our own operations by increasing our use of virtualization and leveraging new technologies within our labs and datacenters.
PBN: How much does the NUWC spend annually on IT and where does the lion’s share go?
BERNARDO: Although I can’t divulge the exact dollar amount, most of our expenditures are on our standard enterprise desktop solution and enterprise resource planning (ERP). The next biggest cost center is for information protection, ensuring our IT resources and information are protected from compromise is vital to national security.
PBN: The NUWC joined the Massachusetts High Technology Council’s Innovation Access Network in July to better connect with technology providers in New England. What kind of civilian providers does NUWC work with and which services/products can NUWC not get enough of?
BERNARDO: NUWC is very pleased to participate in the Access Network and we’re always on the look-out to do more business with local providers, especially small businesses. For example, we have great relationships with local technical service providers like Rite-Solutions, Inc. of Middletown, RI, who we’ve contracted with for a number of capabilities ranging from network operations to media centers. The Access Network is a powerful tool for our scientists and engineers.
PBN: What do you love most about your job?
BERNARDO: Of course, the people. I’m lucky to be in a workforce that’s very diverse but singularly focused on providing the best technological solutions to our Navy’s undersea warriors. Every day I get to collaborate with military personnel, Navy civilians, and contractors that are among the best in their fields. They make NUWC the special place that it is and I’m very happy to add my efforts to theirs.
Playing a role in providing high quality technology that is robust and available when needed, in a secure environment, allows me to contribute to providing the necessary weapon systems to the warfighter. Being part of that is very satisfying.
