Page 10 - FCW, September/October 2020

IT MODERNIZATION
IT MODERNIZATION
Gaining ground on
DIGITAL GOVERNMENT
The pandemic has underscored the importance of a modern IT infrastructure that is resilient, flexible and secure
THE NEED FOR IT modernization has never been more apparent. Several months after the coronavirus pandemic sent workers from office buildings to home offices, IT managers continue to ensure that those employees can connect to the systems, applications and data they need to do their jobs and provide the services on which the public relies.
Some agencies were better positioned to adapt quickly to the new demands. They could deploy chatbots to help process unemployment benefits, create cloud-based applications for contact tracing and offer employees secure, seamless access to colleagues and resources from mobile devices.
Those changes are here to stay. “Agencies have reached a point of no return when it comes to digitizing government operations,” according to a recent Granicus survey of government officials and citizens. In fact, 61% of the officials said they believe COVID-19
has accelerated their agencies’ digital transformation. In addition, 54% of citizens said they expect services to be offered online, and 30% expect those online processes to be easier than non-digital services.
Implications for every
aspect of government Modernization affects every aspect of an agency’s IT operations and involves transforming data centers, eliminating
operational silos and creating robust multi- cloud environments that improve the agility, speed and scalability of IT resources. It also requires rethinking how agencies provide services to the public and how they build and support the teams that manage those IT resources.
By transforming their IT operations, agencies can make better data-driven decisions related to spending, security and services. As a result, they can boost the public’s satisfaction with government and increase employee engagement while making more effective use of taxpayer dollars.
Recognition of the importance of modernization can be found at every level of government. The Modernizing Government Technology Act established the Technology Modernization Fund to help federal agencies get the money they need for such ambitious projects. The fund received $100 million
in fiscal 2018 and another $25 million in fiscal 2019, while the president’s fiscal 2020 proposed budget includes an additional $150 million.
As of July 28, the fund had supported
10 projects, including accelerating the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s migration of five critical business systems from an on-premises mainframe to the cloud. HUD officials estimate that the project will save $8 million annually, and they plan to use those savings to
transform other aging systems.
During the pandemic, Americans have
relied heavily on state and local agencies for vital information and services. In some cases, that demand strained systems that had been
in need of upgrading before the current crisis. Like their federal counterparts, state and local leaders have often been stymied by budget constraints, mission-critical legacy systems and internal resistance to change. But COVID-19 presented an opportunity to find ways around those hurdles.
Many states and cities took advantage
of that opportunity. For example, Seattle’s
IT team fast-tracked modernization efforts by creating a chatbot to handle the sudden influx of IT support requests from remote workers and by helping the Department of Neighborhoods and Office of Economic Development connect with residents through webinars.
How modernization
improves security
Nevertheless, some agencies continue to rely on decades-old technologies. In a 2019 study, the Government Accountability Office found that the Department of Health and Human Services and the Treasury Department use systems that are about 50 years old. In addition, HHS had no documented modernization plan.
“The consequences of not updating legacy systems has contributed to, among other
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