The Internet of Things continues to enable digital transformation for cities, counties and states across America. As a result, residents are reaping a variety of benefits such as improved parking and traffic, enhanced safety due to lighting and cameras, and shortened emergency response times thanks to connected vehicles and video triage systems. Looking in from the outside, it's easy to see the connectivity, collaboration and creativity in action. But it's what you don't see that makes these solutions a viable reality for the public sector. Because behind the scenes of every smart, connected innovation, there is a stable -and secure -network with the ability to efficiently analyze the immense amount of data being collected and processed.

Next week, hundreds of State CIOs will gather in Washington, DC for 2017's NASCIO Midyear Conference. This year's theme, "Connect, Collaborate, and Create", speaks to the rapid digital transformation that the US public sector is experiencing. But I would like to challenge you to look deeper and explore what's really going on behind the scenes of digitization. Regardless of how you begin your own path toward digital acceleration, you must first develop a reliable, secure network. Just as you build a home first by building a strong foundation, you must also create smart communities, states, and countries with the critical network architecture to support it; one that encompasses security everywhere.

So I encourage you to join us at next week's conference for a special round table about the impact of security on state digital transformation (Tuesday, April 25 from 1:30 -2:45 pm). This interactive discussion, featuring Cisco's Director of Public Sector Engineering and CTO, Dan Kent, will dive deeper intoCybersecurity and What it Means for State.Until then, be sure to check out our latest Digital Transformation Illustration for further insight on how your state can take its first small step or a big leap towards digitization.