The White House has released the final version of its strategic plan for modernizing federal information technology (IT), and has removed an earlier provision to halt all upcoming procurements related to legacy systems.
The administration’s Office of American Innovation report details plans to leverage cloud computing systems, update the IT acquisition process and implement strategies for greater cyber security resilience.
Following a draft version released in August, the White House collected comments from over 100 IT industry partners to to revise its plan to remove outdated infrastructure.
“Though this covers a significant footprint of modernization needs, the public comment period generated responses from industry that highlighted the importance of providing an overarching IT modernization plan, which aligns these efforts with ongoing work to improve citizen-facing services, make better use of mobile technologies, improving security across the Federal
enterprise, and other key efforts,” the White House wrote in its report.
Much of the report is the same as the original version, but a key provision to stop all current acquisition efforts related to currently installed legacy systems has been removed.
The Professional Services Council, which represents government IT industry partners, praised the revision as helpful for companies still involved with contracts to supply services or support for networks still utilizing older infrastructure.
“PSC commends the Trump administration’s commitment to bringing more innovation into government. The report released this week sets an important strategic vision for modernizing and securing federal IT systems,” Kevin Cummins, PSC vice president of technology, said in a statement. “We are encouraged that the White House publicly released a draft report and incorporated stakeholder feedback into the final version We look forward to working with the American Technology Council (ATC) as it seeks to amplify these efforts moving forward.”
In a September letter to ATC Director Chris Liddell, PSC pointed to the adverse effects of halting legacy system procurement including increasing security exposure to systems being modernized and impacting the continuity of support services.
The latest report recommends accelerating the adoption of cloud computing services, as well as expanding the use of shared services.
The White House is expected to begin executing the report’s action plans in January, but specific agency leaders are tasked with defining specific implementation procedures.