On a recent trip to Washington DC, I met with a number of IT professionals working for the Federal government. I made sure to ask each person I met what he or she thought of Federal CIO Vivek Kundra. Kundra was appointed to this role by President Obama in March 2009.

Based upon this unscientific and small sample, I’d say that opinions are extremely binary. It’s not quite a “love him or hate him,” scenario but pretty close.

Those in favor of Kundra like the fact that he has brought a personality and visibility to Federal IT. Kundra certainly has gotten his fair share of publicity. He’ll be speaking at a CIO conference at the University of MD and at a Tech conference in NYC soon. This exposure is reassuring to the very talented Federal IT population that isn’t well understood outside of the Beltway. Kundra also gets kudos for some of his work on things like data.gov and his discussions on cloud computing.

While Kundra’s detractors recognize these accomplishments, but they feel that he is somewhat of an empty suit who seems more in tune with Silicon Valley than the IT efforts in DC. What’s more, many people point out that while Kundra has a CIO title, he acts and speaks more like a CTO. For example, all his talk about cloud computing is simply a better way to deploy IT infrastructure. Critics wonder when Kundra will focus on CIO topics like IT as a means to enhance business functions and connect better with citizens and the public sector.

Kundra’s predecessor, Karen Evans, wasn’t the most charismatic person in DC, but she did move the ball forward on things like e-government, the Federal Enterprise Architecture, and FISMA.

In my humble opinion, the jury is still out on Mr. Kundra. The attention is great but no one really understand what the heck cloud computing is. ESG data also indicates that the next IT transition will proceed slowly. While cloud computing matures, there are an awful lot of smart people who would like to see Kundra focus on the business of IT rather than blue sky, Sand Hill Rd. rhetoric.

Related posts:

1. The Jury Is Still Out On The Vivek Kundra Era
2. Message to Fed CIO Vivek Kundra: You need IT staff to execute your plan.
3. Teleworkergate: Snowstorms Expose Real Weaknesses in Federal Teleworking Execution
4. Federal Cloud Computing? Not so Fast!
5. Federal Government Remains Curious — but Skeptical — of Cloud Computing

Tags: Barack Obama, Cybersecurity, Federal Government, Vivek Kundra