According to two sources, Federal IT Dashboard and CDW IT Monitor, Federal IT spending is UP.
First, in a September 2009 blog article titled Moving Beyond Compliance: The Status Quo is No Longer Acceptable, government technology heavyweights, Vivek Kundra (Federal CIO), Robert Carey (Navy CIO), and Vance Hitch (DOJ CIO) informed the public that a Security Metrics Taskforce was formed to combat the continuously evolving threats to our nation’s information security. Experts, from both the Federal community and the private sector, such as the Federal CIO Council, the Department of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, Privacy Advisory Board, and many others held their inaugural meeting on September 17, 2009, to discuss and debate, and subsequently to develop new metrics for information security performance for Federal agencies that are focused on outcomes, rather than mere compliance. By shifting the focus to outcomes, the experts anticipate that the change will “enable new and actionable insight into agencies’ information and network security postures, possible vulnerabilities and the ability to better protect our federal systems.”
Although this blog does not specifically state that Federal IT spending will increase in the near future, all signs point to “Yes.” Experience and common sense indicate that certain actions and key words = more Federal spending.
A new taskforce/committee, Security Metrics Taskforce, was formed. This new taskforce will evaluate threats to the electronic infrastructure of the Federal government.
The Security Metrics Taskforce will develop a new set of security metrics. Factors that will impact the development of new metric include: “a trust but verify approach, fulfilling statutory requirements, real-time awareness security posture.” “Fulfilling statutory requirements” and “real-time awareness security posture” are phrases indicative of more Federal spending since more manpower—both administrative government workers as well as IT specialists—must be hired, and more hardware as well as software purchases and upgrades must be implemented in order to fulfill the new security metrics.
In the most recent issue of CDW IT Monitor, a bimonthly indicator that tracks the direction and momentum of the US IT marketplace, all signs and trends point to the continual increase of Federal government IT spending. For starters, when surveyed, Federal government IT decision makers anticipated growth on many levels—“44 percent of Federal government organizations plan to make significant software purchases in the next six months, an increase of 14 percent since June.” Additionally, “89 percent of Federal IT decision makers plan to make hardware purchases in the next six months, an increase of nine percentage points since June.” Though this short blog does not offer any explanation as to why Federal spending is increasing, by taking into account the article Moving Beyond Compliance: The Status Quo is No Longer Acceptable, and the subsequent analysis, we can safely draw the conclusion that Federal IT spending will be increasing in the months to come.
Perspective Conclusion on Federal IT Spending:
Federal IT Spending will increase in the areas of Public Healthcare, Defense, and general Information Technology in 2010—due in part to projected plans from President Obama’s executive branch as well as the typical upgrade cycle for most technology assets. No doubt some of the Federal IT budgets increase will be spent on Microsoft Windows 7. Moreover, the government’s main expenditures of 2010 in IT will vastly exceed expenditures in previous years with the focus on the aforementioned Windows 7, Process Improvement such as ITIL, Security Software, and Asset Management Software.
