Page 31 - FCW, July/August 2018
P. 31

                                    think every organization is at a differ- ent level of maturity, and that’s a chal- lenge across the federal government.”
Do more with less
For all the different maturity levels, however, one need was nearly uni- versal: Agencies want more and more bandwidth.
“Everything that we want to do right now is going to require a significant amount of bandwidth outside our normal data-center-to-data-center sort of bandwidth,” one participant said, adding that the days of annual bud- get increases to cover that connectiv- ity are over.
EIS should help on that front. One participant said GSA has negotiated prices that are about 21 percent lower than Networx rates for similar serv- ices. But others stressed the impor- tance of being strategic in their plan- ning and making sure not everything is supported forever.
“We’ve all seen technology road maps that just go up and to the right,” one executive said. “Everything was at least inflation plus whatever for inno- vation. So we built our road maps specifically with a big thread of divest- ment. You want to do something? What are you not going to do? Otherwise, it’s always more and more and more, and
no one believes you when you’re just a consumer of resources.”
Another participant agreed, saying the move to EIS is a per- fect opportunity to force those conversations by “placing cliffs in the way” and declaring that an outdated system will no longer be supported.
It’s the IT shop’s responsibility
to provide an acceptable off-ramp and alternative solution, that par- ticipant added, but the threat can’t
be an empty one. “I have turned things off, and that’s what scares them the most. That’s how the cliff becomes real. All you have to do is turn one thing off and have it matter and then the cliff becomes real.”
Participants also lamented the lack of attention to total cost of ownership and said understanding it is essential to making smart decisions about EIS.
“There’s not usually a total cost of ownership done properly because that’s an afterthought,” one said. “I’m talking about what it should cost you not only to buy, build, maintain, but also what does it cost you to retire that system? Part of our challenge with the budget isn’t just building all this new stuff and getting all this new stuff in place. How do we eliminate all the old stuff that’s out there or somehow
incorporate it into the new stuff in a meaningful way?”
EIS as the ultimate IaaS?
Although most participants applauded the flexibility and broad range of serv- ices that EIS offers, a few pined for a way to truly outsource their infrastruc- ture needs.
“Here’s my wish list for GSA,” one said. “I would love if GSA put up a net- work and cloud security access broker and software-defined storage running on a software-defined wide-area net- work. Make that available to all small agencies like us. [The Department of Homeland Security] can do the secu- rity, and we don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
GSA is exploring something along
July/August 2018 FCW.COM 27
















































































   29   30   31   32   33