Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has announced a plan to outsource IT jobs in the executive branch, offering positions to approximately 200 employees with the private company Cognizant Government Solutions. The state will migrate data to cloud storage with Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Cognizant Government Solutions will manage the state’s day-to-day IT operations.

Cost Savings

The move is part of the state’s strategic IT consolidation that began in October 2023, and is projected to save the state more than $525 million over 10 years, according to a news release. Governor Reynolds stated that this change is an investment in security, agility, and long-term value for Iowans, allowing the state to protect data more effectively, improve service reliability, and respond quickly as public needs evolve.

Iowa Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner criticized the move, saying that Governor Reynolds has made a unilateral decision to disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands of public employees, severing their ties to IPERS and leaving them at the mercy of a private, out-of-state company.

Original reporting: KCCI Des Moines — read the source article.