Kundra to Depart, Leaving Behind IT Reform Plan

Vivek Kundra, the federal government’s first chief information officer, will step down from his post later this summer, the White House announced last week, raising questions about whether his signature “cloud-first” policy and information technology reform effort will continue at the same rapid pace.

Kundra, who took office in early 2009, quickly put his stamp on the office of CIO with an aggressive effort to fix troubled programs and push the government toward cloud — or Web-based — computing. During his short time in office, he has rolled out plans to close about 800 data centers in less than five years and to ensure federal IT programs are executed in smaller, more manageable chunks.