GovernmentExecutive.com

Army
Steven W. Boutelle
Chief Information Officer

Lt. Gen. Steven W. Boutelle's Army career began when the radio dominated as the warfighter's primary means of communication. Enlisting as a nuclear weapons electronics specialist in 1969, Boutelle's career has spanned the vast transformation in military communications.

Now as the Army's chief information officer, his job consists of maintaining the Army's extensive network of information and communications systems, managing security protections against numerous and continuous Internet-based attacks, and planning for the service's future information technology systems. Communications systems that affect the lives of American warfighters now include global positioning devices with map readers in Humvees, Internet access from virtually anywhere and digital radios.

"Communications have always been important, but it's been highlighted now. They want it faster, and they want it in color. They want it smaller, lighter and with less power," he says.

Boutelle possesses a unique understanding of technology and predicts the position of CIO is on the way out. Today's hottest technology will become routine tomorrow, and high-level officials will no longer be called on to manage IT, Boutelle says. He doesn't see the military's need for people like him going away though. The CIO position will evolve into a chief knowledge officer, who will help the Army determine what to do with the massive amounts of information being gathered, according to Boutelle.

Future challenges include increasing the bandwidth and converging data and video to allow information delivery in multiple media. As American soldiers become more familiar with technology, expectations rise, Boutelle says. Ten years ago, fewer soldiers understood the technology says Boutelle, but now development is driven by younger service members who are more receptive and constantly coming up with new ways to use IT.

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