William "Bill" Rials
Associate Director, Professor of Practice, Information Technology | Tulane University
New Orleans, LA, UNITED STATES
Bill is a nationally recognized subject matter expert on information technology.
Media
Publications:
Documents:
Photos:
Videos:
Audio/Podcasts:
Biography
Dr. William (Bill) Rials is the Associate Director and Professor of Practice of the Tulane University School of Professional Advancement Information Technology Program, where he focuses on continually delivering and updating the program curriculum based on innovative and emerging technologies. In addition to the responsibilities of running the program, Dr. Rials is also a Professor of Practice and a Distinguished Faculty Member where he teaches innovative technology undergraduate and graduate classes.
Dr. Rials is a nationally recognized subject matter expert on information technology. He has had a career as an IT executive with broad experience delivering value to government, academic, and business partners through the innovative use of technology.
He has served as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for a law enforcement agency, and during this tenure, he was appointed the local government cybersecurity liaison for the MS-ISAC and U.S. Department of Homeland security efforts for government cybersecurity safety. During this role, he was selected as a committee member to develop national cyber exercise guidelines for the National Center for Internet Security, resulting in him helping to conduct a nationwide cybersecurity exercise involving 12 state government, four federal agencies, and private sector infrastructure organizations in the MS-ISAC headquarters in Albany, NY.
In 2006, he was appointed as Director of Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for local government operations ranging from law enforcement, court systems, tax collections, land records, voter registrations, and other government functions. During this tenure, he implemented innovative technology solutions that not only improved efficiency but also reduced the budget. Dr. Rials was a pioneer in technology virtualization where he implemented virtualization in every piece of the legacy infrastructure. These efforts led him to be credited with first public safety agency in the nation to successfully implement a full virtual desktop deployment in an entire fleet of 100+ emergency vehicles.
Accomplishments (2)
Distinguished Faculty Member - 2016 (professional)
Awarded in 2016 from Tulane University.
StateScoop Top50 (professional)
2017-04-03
Named one of the nation's top 50 IT professionals in state government.
Education (3)
Jackson State University: PhD, Higher Education Administration/Public Policy
Missouri State University: Master's Degree, Computer and Information Systems
Belhaven University: B.S., Business Administration and Managment
Affiliations (2)
- National Association of State Technology Directors
- National Association of Chief Information Officers
Media Appearances (4)
'It's a matter of time:' Cyberattacks increasingly becoming the norm
WWL-TV tv
2019-08-02
As Morris Jeff Community School in New Orleans became the fourth public school in Louisiana to be hit with a cyber security breach, experts say these attacks are the new normal.
Automated security services essential for cloud security
SC Media online
2019-07-23
Enterprise cloud operations are expanding and maturing, but as with any natural maturation, inevitable growing pains must be endured and overcome.
NEWS Microsoft Windows Sandbox not a fit for all enterprise playgrounds
TechTarget online
2019-01-31
Microsoft Windows Sandbox is catching the attention of IT professionals as an easy-to-use sandboxing tool, but its usefulness might not be universal.
New Ways To Prevent Identity Theft During The Holiday Shopping Season
Forbes online
2018-11-29
It's too easy to tune out advice about new ways to prevent identity theft and other threats to your personal information, even as the holiday shopping season gets into full swing. That seems like someone else's problem.
Articles (2)
CIO as Broker: A New Model
National Association of National State Chief Information Officers
William Rials
2018-04-18
Multisourcing is emerging as the discipline for managing a complex and diversified portfolio of services and service providers. These services are being employed to meet the continual evolving demand for creatively delivering government services through new channels with new functionality. In this evolving circumstance there is the need for a new operating model the state chief information officer can employ to bring together agencies needs and demands with available emerging technologies and management disciplines. This report opens the door to this discussion and explores the underlying forces of change that are driving the need for a new operating model.
Cloudy With A Chance of Automation
SC Media
William Rials
2018-12-01
As cloud operations become increasingly popular, enterprises are recognizing that they require automated cloud security services to mitigate risk. But the road to automation is not always a smooth journey, or one with a distinct destination. Security experts discuss the promise and the perils of embracing automated cloud security services
Social