Federal News Radio told you the Defense Department CIO’s functions will move to the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and be “re-fashioned” as part of DoD’s efforts to cut $101 billion over the next five years.

So how will the changes affect the CIO office?

Paul Brubaker, a senior director for Cisco System’s North America Public Sector Solutions, said the name of the title doesn’t matter.

What’s important is that the CIO is “a high-level strategic partner,” Brubaker said in an interview with the DorobekINSIDER.

“The important thing is to make sure that person is performing that strategic role, where they’re really looking at ways to apply technology, transform business processes and missions processes and adding value to the department,” said Brubaker, who is a former deputy CIO at DoD and helped craft the legislation that created the CIO position 14 years ago.

Why the discussion about the role of the CIO is happening so long after the position was created is “a little disconcerting,” Brubaker said, “but at least we’re talking about it now.”

DoD claims the shift of the CIO to DISA will elevate the role of CIO. Brubaker said that remains to be seen.

This story is part of Federal News Radio’s daily DoD Report brought to you by Dell. For more defense news, click here.

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