On Gov Tech Today, host Jennifer Saha speaks with Chris Given, California’s new state CIO and director of the California Department of Technology, about his first 10 weeks in the role and priorities for the state’s tech organization. Given shares his background across 10 federal agencies via the U.S. Digital Service and work with several states, then discusses how CDT must adapt as departments modernize away from legacy data center services, reshaping CDT’s budget and service model. He outlines CDT’s push to act as a broker of services through SITES (Statewide IT Shared Services), aiming to consolidate common software purchases, reduce duplicative negotiations, and expand beyond initial AI contracts such as Anthropic’s Claude. They also cover Poppy as a safe AI experimentation tool, updates to California’s AI risk assessment process (5305F) with tiered review, leadership transitions including state CISO Vitaly Panich, and CalSecure 2.0 and CalNet’s expanded managed security offerings.
On Gov Tech Today, host Jennifer Saha speaks with Chris Given, California’s new state CIO and director of the California Department of Technology, about his first 10 weeks in the role and priorities for the state’s tech organization. Given shares his background across 10 federal agencies via the U.S. Digital Service and work with several states, then discusses how CDT must adapt as departments modernize away from legacy data center services, reshaping CDT’s budget and service model. He outlines CDT’s push to act as a broker of services through SITES (Statewide IT Shared Services), aiming to consolidate common software purchases, reduce duplicative negotiations, and expand beyond initial AI contracts such as Anthropic’s Claude. They also cover Poppy as a safe AI experimentation tool, updates to California’s AI risk assessment process (5305F) with tiered review, leadership transitions including state CISO Vitaly Panich, and CalSecure 2.0 and CalNet’s expanded managed security offerings.
00:00 Welcome and Introductions
00:28 New CIO Hot Seat
00:48 Career Journey to California
01:51 GovOps and Federated IT
03:55 Meeting Departments Where They Are
05:37 Early CIO Priorities
06:31 Budget Shifts and Data Centers
08:25 CDT as Service Broker
11:09 What SITES Means
11:36 SITES vs SLP Explained
12:13 First Deal Anthropic Claude
12:47 What’s Next for SITES
14:14 Poppy AI Sandbox
15:09 Power Users and Community
15:54 Power Users Scale AI
16:39 Responsible AI Guardrails
18:04 Risk Tiers and 5305F
19:50 Communicating Policy Changes
21:51 Cybersecurity in AI Era
23:17 Leadership Turnover and CalSecure
25:51 CalNet Adds Managed Security
27:04 Modernization and Vendor Flexibility
29:39 Budget Cycles and Agile Reality
31:46 Pre-Solicitations Build Trust
33:07 Transition Plans and Closing