Committee Spotlight: Technology

BY TYLER MICIK

The State Chamber’s Technology Committee met in late August for their quarterly meeting. The committee was joined by Jason Clarke, Delaware’s Chief Information Officer. Clarke leads a team of over 300 IT professionals at the Department of Technology and Information (DTI), aimed at providing technology services and scalable, collaborative solutions to provide the highest quality programs and digital government services to Delawareans.

Clarke talked about DTI—what they do, who and what they protect, and DTI’s four main priorities: data center modernization, digital government, secure end user services, and workforce development. The Department does everything from cybersecurity and incident response to IT support, and they process around 8.3 billion threats per day.

Universal broadband was also discussed. In September 2021, Governor Carney announced a $110 million dollar investment of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to cover every “last mile” of the state with high-speed, wired broadband internet service— which is around 12,000 addresses. Since then, Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, (IIJA) which guarantees states a minimum of $100 million to connect unserved homes and/or upgrade homes with lower-speed connections and an additional $5 million in planning funds. Delaware is using $25 million of that original $110 million allocation to connect over 4,300 homes in the next 18 months as they transition deployment plans to leverage the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Fund (BEAD) in place of ARPA.

Delaware has also applied for the Digital Equity Program, which would give the state $12 million to provide devices, establish connections, and teach internet use and cyber security to undeserved communities. To view if your address or business has internet service and find out more, visit DTI’s GIS Hub at https:// gis.broadband.delaware.gov/.

If you would like to participate in the Technology Committee, please contact me at tmicik@dscc.com.