Richard Spires seems destined to take on impossibly difficult missions—and somehow make them work.
Spires, 49, was appointed chief information officer at the Department of Homeland Security in September 2009, stepping into the shoes of no less than seven previous CIO’s at DHS in the eight years the agency has existed. He has taken over responsibility for the $6.4 billion DHS has invested in information technology. His mission is to transform the agency’s IT into a shared infrastructure that brings DHS’s many competing departments into one cohesive lean, green network—even if it means forcing very difficult change. “These are tough jobs,” he laughs.
In addition to tackling the DHS technology challenge, Spires is also serving as co-chair of the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative. The initiative is a government-wide effort to move all federal agencies toward modern, energy efficient and sustainable information technology by consolidating and eliminating inefficient, redundant and outmoded IT systems.
As Spires will tell you, current federal IT systems are increasingly unsustainable. “One thing astounding to me was we are spending more and using more energy for the chiller and all the things around the computing platforms than the computing platforms themselves,” says Spires. Many federal servers are underutilized, typically running at less than 20 percent of their computing capacity. Yet, they still require continual power to maintain them. “On average, we’re using over twice as much energy on cooling, lighting, back up, etc, than powering the computers themselves,” Spires adds.
Source: http://www.cio.gov/documents/State-of-the-Federal-Datacenter-Consolidation-Initiative-Report.pdf
A Dramatic Shift
Just after Spires came on board as the CIO of DHS, the Obama administration issued Executive Order 13514 directing agencies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption by 2020. The administration also ordered agencies to make plans to reduce the number of federal data centers by 800, or 40 percent, by 2015. This data center consolidation process was accelerated last year, and overhauling the government’s IT infrastructure was officially linked with the administration’s energy and carbon footprint reduction goals.
All of these directives underscore the fact that the White House wants to see a dramatic shift in federal IT strategy. “So we’re trying to reduce both the number of data centers,” says Spires, “and take advantage of state of the art capabilities to reduce energy consumption.” Moving to cloud computing where infrastructure is shared by different agencies or clients, and services are purchased and paid for by various departments within agencies, is high on the federal agenda. “Right now, we’re doing it in our own facilities,” Spires says. “We have capabilities that look very much like a private cloud.” Under this new private cloud system, DHS provides services to component agencies, and they in turn pay for the full range of IT they use. About half of DHS’s disparate email systems—there were 17 different ones when Spires arrived—and the IT for headquarters will be the first to use the centralized DHS services.
Though he believes all of these changes in IT infrastructure are critical to the long-term sustainability of DHS, and the government generally, Spires is finding that shared IT is sometimes a tough sell. “This is not easy,” he says, “because agencies and departments are very reluctant to give up control of their own data operations.”
Spires is one of a team of people advising agencies throughout the government on how to green their IT, making sure they understand not only the environmental, but also the administrative benefits it will provide. “It’s a cost savings measure, and the administrative burden is lower,” he explains. “It gives a manager more ability to redeploy resources. Sustainability and energy savings are a part of that.”
DHS itself has begun the process of consolidating 24 data centers into two, one in Virginia, and one in Mississippi. The process is on track to be completed by 2014. As a result, Spires thinks the effort to green IT within his agency has reached “the tipping point.”
“We’ve stood up two new data centers and we’re trying to move everyone into these two new data centers.” Before, when Spires would explain to officials in the 22 various departments that make up DHS that a centralized data processing center offsite would have the capability to provide their IT needs, they were incredulous. “They would be looking at me, like, ‘Oh really? You think you have the capabilities to run our mission critical systems? Oh really?’
“But now [that the two new data centers are up and running] they can’t make the argument that we don’t have the wherewithal to do it. Now the problem is accepting the sense of losing some control.”
It’s that cultural change that Spires, like many federal CIO’s involved in greening IT, understands is troubling to agencies accustomed to trusting technology they can see and touch. “It’s our biggest challenge—getting people to understand that moving to a shared infrastructure is beneficial for them and their department in the long run.”
Tough Customer
If anyone can push federal technology into the era of green IT, it’s Spires. Spires is deep into technology at his core. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in electrical engineering, and decided to pick up a math degree “as a hobby.” “So that gives you an idea of the kind of person I am,” he told a radio interviewer.
Born in New Jersey, he grew up in Colorado and Ohio, as his father moved the family to follow his work as an electrical engineer for AT&T Bell Labs. “My Dad had a big impact on me,” Spires says, “but I never felt pressure to choose any particular career.”
After graduating from college, Spires spent 16 years at SRA International of Fairfax, Va. Then he and a partner spun off a start up company, Mantas, that developed data mining solutions so big banks and brokerage houses on Wall Street could recognize money laundering, trading noncompliance, securities fraud and other surreptitious activities that could land them in hot water with federal authorities. “I like to say that I have dealt with some of the toughest customers you can possibly deal with,” Spires says.
He ran Mantas successfully for about four years. Then he began talking with friends who were working in government. “I always wanted to do public service, he says, but always thought that would be in the twilight of my career.” People he knew at the IRS began discussing their need for someone to run a massive modernization effort of the IRS business services division. This was one of the largest, most complex technology modernization efforts ever undertaken. “Once I understood what it was, I thought ‘Wow, a chance to run that would be quite an undertaking.’” So he surprised himself and signed on with the IRS in 2004.
The job was essentially Mission Impossible I. “The modernization effort involved updating the core applications that support tax administration in the U.S,” says Spires. This involved overhauling over 400 systems that administer more than 200 million taxpayer records. “The technical complexity was staggering.”
About two and a half years later, the IRS asked him to become their chief information officer, and not long after, deputy commissioner for operations support. He stayed until 2008.
“So I had a good run there at the IRS, four and a half years. I worked hard and I needed a break. So I took a year off, did some consulting, and tried to figure out what to do with my life.”
Going the Distance
But his break did not last long. In 2009, he got a call from the incoming Obama administration asking him if he was ready to take on Mission Impossible II. Spires was asked to become the CIO of the Department of Homeland Security and assist DHS in upgrading its IT infrastructure to a greener, more sustainable model.
Spires knew that DHS was a mammoth agency that had experienced difficult IT challenges in its short history. DHS systems were all the more important to the nation because the DHS mission involves among the most critical government functions—protecting the borders, protecting the coasts, protecting the airlines, protecting the President, providing aid and comfort to citizens after natural disasters and much more. Still in its early years, DHS was created from 22 different agencies that previously had been spread throughout the government, and often operated different email and IT systems, few of which interfaced. Just merging these IT systems would be a Herculean task.
Plus, the new administration desperately needed talent to help move all federal agencies to modern technology, relying on smaller, greener, more sustainable shared infrastructure.
While some technologists would have run the other way, Spires saw the offer as “a chance to make a difference. I’d had enough success in the commercial world so I could do this financially.” He was also attracted by the idea that the Obama administration wanted him, specifically, not just a suit to fill a seat. “I’m an independent,” he says. “I’m not even a Democrat.” He asked the transition team liaison why they would ever want to hire him, given his lack of involvement in the campaign or the Democratic Party. “And they told me because they thought I could do the job! To me that was impressive. It made me say ‘Hey maybe this is a place I want to work.’”
Spires had recharged his batteries during his year off. “This was the chance to take on something really challenging.” Rather, it was another chance, like the IRS modernization. “I’m very driven,” Spires adds. “Some might say overly so. But I try to keep it in balance.”
Spires admits he works 12 hours a day, and on weekends. Yet, he’s feeling more relaxed, now that the two major data centers have come online, six older ones have been closed, and top-quality permanent staff have been hired to move the DHS transformation forward, faster. “I don’t feel nearly as stressed as I did the first 18 months I was here,” he adds.
But Spires acknowledges that DHS is still wrestling with becoming one agency, and that has a major impact on how quickly—and with what level of success—Spires can meet his new challenges. “This is a difficult job,” he admits. “. . . You are supposed to be an amazing change agent, but when something breaks, everybody is screaming at you. DHS is a harder place to deal with than the IRS. On pure technology, the IRS was more complex. But the IRS had a uniform culture, few political appointees, and actually no political environment except at the very top.
“Here, at DHS, you have many different cultures . . . and a very political environment because you have so many political appointees. And I am one. So the cultural differences, the immaturity of the processes because it is such a young department—kind of a start-up agency—it’s a very different challenge than that at the IRS.”
Spires knows that changes in culture and thinking as great as those involved in federal agencies giving up control of their own data systems does not happen overnight. But he’s prepared to go the distance. A runner since high school when he competed in track and field, he has the endurance of a marathoner, which he has been, and the optimism of a winner.
Amanda Spake is a former staff writer at U.S. News and World Report and the Washington Post Magazine. She lives at the Chesapeake Bay, in Churchton, Md.
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