Page 62 - FCW, May/June 2018

Coalition, a trade association that advocates for government data to be both standardized and in an interoperable, machine readable format, said the administration’s decision to separate IT systems from data and data standards “is the right approach. The government’s data can be standardized and made more useful, and more transparent, without requiring major systems changes.”
and privacy protections, is now possible. The commissioned recommended the
Modernizing Government Technology Act, which authorized the allocation
of funds and technical expertise to agencies to assist modernization efforts. The MGT Act was enacted as a part
IT modernization throughout government will happen according to a framework that the PMA says will provide for an integrated view of the kinds of IT challenges that have to be addressed, using common capabilities will “ensure that, going forward, strategic IT projects are better positioned for success.”
At the end of 2017, the American Technology Council, established by President Trump in May, made its
report on what it would take to build a more modern and secure architecture
for federal IT systems. A central focus was that agencies accelerate adoption of cloud technologies and shared services.
If necessary, the ATC said, agencies should reallocate their funding away from obsolete legacy IT.
None of these initiatives by themselves directly address the need for improved data management or data analytics, but given the emphasis of the PMA and MGT, IT modernization will have to include both of these to some degree. Given that many agencies have already boosted their analytic capabilities, they could represent the “low hanging fruit” of modernization that agencies can utilize for relatively little outlay.
While some parts of this will happen sooner than others, the PMA stresses that the overall drive for modernization and improved provision and use of data is a long-term project. “Deep-seated transformation takes time and will not happen in one or two years,” it says.
To extend this modernizing push, Congress passed in 2017 the
IT Modernization
Game Changing Technology to Meet Agency Missions
implementation of a National Secure Data Service, built around existing government infrastructure and expertise. “Being able to combine data within a secure environment will be an increasingly vital aspect of
of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, and authorizes up to $250 million each for FY 2018 and FY 2019 for a Technology Modernization Fund that agencies can tap for their modernization programs.
the evidence-building community’s capacity to meet future demands from policymakers,” the commission said.
Networks, Shared Services, Resourcing Top Modernization Act
The Modernizing Government Technology Act recommends three areas that government should focus on to get the most out of its modernization efforts:
• Network Modernization and Consolidation: This will enable agencies to move away from protection of network perimeters and managing legacy systems toward protection of federal data and cloud-optimized deployments.
• Shared Services to Enable Future Network Architectures:
Recommends ways to address current impediments to policy, resource allocation, and agency prioritization to enable the use of cloud, collaboration tools, and other security shared services.
• Resourcing Federal Network IT Modernization: Ensure that maintaining legacy systems aligns with the broader modernization strategy, and consider “cut and invest” strategies to redirect resources from obsolete systems to more modern ones.
The broader use of data by government -- and the need for better data management -- is now a mandate, according to the PMA, but it’s been a long time coming. Various moves over the past few years have pushed the policy forward.
In May 2013, for example, President Obama signed an executive order making “open and machine-readable” the default state for both new and modernized government information resources. The government had already posted thousands of its data resources in machine-readable formats, the order said, and entrepreneurs and innovators had used them to develop a “vast range” of new products and businesses.
In 2016, Congress created the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking to develop a strategy for increasing the use and availability of data to improve government. The commission issued a report in 2017 that said improved access to data, buttressed by greater legal
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