Federal managers say they could more than double their IT savings each year if it weren’t for ill-equipped networks, according to a recent survey.
The survey data from MeriTalk and network technology firm Brocade [BRCD] shows that agencies have seen 10 percent reductions in their individual budgets through their current efforts, but they could be experiencing 24 percent reductions. Fully realized initiatives in five areas would cut $19.7 billion per year from the government’s $82 billion IT budget, as opposed to the current annual savings of $8.5 billion.
Respondents charted their progress in five key cost-saving areas: consolidation, virtualization, cloud computing, remote access and infrastructure diversification (adding suppliers to create competition). Agencies have made the most progress on consolidating data centers and providing remote access to data. The results of the survey in each area show billions in potential savings:
– Remote Access: additional $1 billion in potential savings per year (70 percent progress on initiatives)
– Consolidation: additional $2.8 billion (62 percent progress)
– Virtualization: additional $2.7 billion (53 percent progress)
– Infrastructure Diversification: additional $1.5 billion (50 percent progress)
– Cloud Computing: additional $3.2 billion (38 percent progress)
The gap in potential versus actual savings stems from outdated and strained networks. Respondents said poor connections, service disruptions or downtime affected their mission on a bimonthly basis. Only one in three respondents said their agency’s network could handle the additional workload that progress in the five areas would entail. Data center consolidation reduces hardware and saves money, but the resulting infrastructure still needs to be able to support the remaining four initiatives.
“Agencies should focus on the network to improve capacity, connections, reliability, and security, and consider moving systems and applications to the cloud to generate additional savings.” Anthony Robbins, vice president of Brocade Federal, said in a statement.
IT managers estimated they would need to increase network capacity by 26 percent to realize the savings found in the survey.
Respondents included 300 federal network managers, with 53 percent representing civilian agencies and 47 percent representing defense or intelligence agencies.