At Last, a Defense CIO

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced Tuesday at long last the appointment of Teri Takai as the Pentagon's chief information officer, effective Nov. 7. The announcement ends a saga that started this February.

In the interim Gates did away with the job of the assistant secretary of Defense for networks and information integration -- a slot for which Takai, California's CIO, was nominated. This means Takai can now be appointed CIO without the need for Senate confirmation.

Gates said the stand-alone CIO job will be stronger than the previous ASD/NII and CIO construct, but I hear a lot of work needs to be done to make that a reality, including developing a definition of the role Takai will have in managing Defense information technology and the role the Defense Information Systems Agency, which is supposed to support Takai, will play.

Meanwhile, I hope Takai takes a crash course in spectrum, as the Pentagon really needs someone to quarterback its defense of military spectrum that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Federal Communications Commission want to transfer to commercial use.