US spending big to modernise agencies' IT

The US government has so far committed nearly US$90 million ($127.2 million) towards modernising federal government agencies' ICT systems during the first year of progress with the President's Management Agenda.

The agenda, which was announced in March last year, was designed to improve the services made available to the public and the outcomes of major projects by government agencies.

The agenda established several cross-agency priority goals aimed at improving performance across government by leveraging the three key drivers of technology, data and the public sector workforce.

Now the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has published a report (PDF) outlining the progress made during the first year of the agenda.

As part of the IT modernisation component of the initiative, the recently established Technology Modernization Fund has approved seven projects in five agencies to modernise legacy technology and enhance cybersecurity.

Agencies have meanwhile accelerated their migration to cloud email and collaboration services to help reduce the federal data centre footprint, while using standardisation to enhance security.

Meanwhile, the government has recently released the first leg of a multiyear Federal Data Strategy, which aims to fundamentally transform how data gets used and managed within the US government.

As part of the workforce component, the CIO Council and Department of Education's Cyber Reskilling Academy recently selected its first cohort of 25 candidates to impart with in-demand cybersecurity skills.

The OMB and the United States Digital Service — a technology unit housed within the Executive branch of the government — have also been engaged in training agency contracting officers to help them better buy technology by understanding and adopting industry language.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/ra2 studio

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