Corrections, health, elder affairs and DOT report varied progress on cloud modernization

Four agencies that together received about 90 percent of the fiscal year 2022–23 allotment for cloud migration gave five‑minute progress reports to the Information Technology Budget and Policy Subcommittee, outlining different timelines, procurement steps and levels of completion.

Ken Kisha, chief information officer for the Florida Department of Corrections, described a three‑year cloud modernization program covering legacy applications used by the Department of Corrections and the Florida Commission on Offender Review. "This cloud modernization program that we're embarking upon is to modernize 98 legacy applications," Kisha said. He described a phased approach, enterprise architecture principles and organizational change management and said the department has analyzed millions of lines of code and hundreds of databases as part of the work.

Kisha reported the department had been allocated funds for the program and gave a status estimate. During questioning, he initially said the project was "about 60% complete." Later in the meeting he corrected the status, saying it was "40% complete," and that program counts and dollar figures had changed as applications were consolidated. The committee requested clarified, reconciled spending and completion figures in writing.

Jeremy Daniel, chief information officer for the Department of Elder Affairs, told the committee DOEA started Power Platform work in February 2024 and completed a proof‑of‑concept for three applications by Oct. 16, 2024. Daniel said DOEA awarded an RFQ to HSO for application modernization and to another vendor, ISF, for a data architecture contract. He listed expenditures to date and projected spending and said the RFQ process for implementation had closed and kickoff was scheduled.

Antonio Dawkins, deputy secretary of operations at the Department of Health, said the department received a multiyear appropriation of $18,850,000 to support cloud modernization. He described three projects: the health management system (a mission‑critical EHR in 67 county health departments), the Child Protection Team Information System (a case management tool used by child protection staff) and a strategic assessment to roadmap modernization for the department's remaining state data center applications. Dawkins said the health management system began in January 2024 and he reported it was on schedule; he gave a target completion date in 2026 and said phases 3 and 4 were planned for completion mid‑year, with pilot and final migration scheduled later.

Trey Tillander, executive director of Transportation Technology for the Department of Transportation, said FDOT received about $15,000,000 for 10 cloud modernization projects. Tillander described FDOT's inventory — "over 25 million lines of code on the mainframe" and 229 enterprise applications — and listed measures of success: number of legacy applications migrated, faster time to production (target four months on average by 2029) and an availability goal of 99.95 percent by 2029. He said FDOT had modernized 27 systems since 2019 and that some large, multi‑year projects remain. During questioning Tillander said FDOT's Azure tenant costs were about $110,000 per month.

Committee members pressed agencies on training and workforce rollout, disaster recovery and whether agencies had completed cost‑of‑cloud versus on‑premises analyses. Officials said training plans and disaster recovery were part of project designs and said agency responsibilities for databases and operations remain with the individual agencies while FLDS and Northwest provide guidance, brokering and infrastructure support.