Although continuing resolutions and ongoing budget cuts will have an impact, most federal IT spending requests are slightly ahead of 2011 levels, with buying trends expected to emphasize telework/mobile computing, cloud computing/virtualization, and cybersecurity.
The 2012 Federal IT budget request is approximately $80.9 billion, of which 52 percent is civilian and 48 percent is defense. In 2011, the IT budget was $78.8 billion.
These financial statistics and technology trends were unveiled at a Federal IT FY2012 Budget Briefing hosted by immixGroup on October 20.
Despite slight increases in IT budget requests almost across the board on the civilian side, the primary budget driver is cost savings. Agencies are emphasizing value measurement, process improvement, elimination of redundancy and duplication, and the adoption of new technologies to improve operations.
“There’s a lot of perceived doom and gloom around federal budgets this year,” said Doug Gaines, Director of Market Intelligence for immixGroup. “But we think agency IT budgets will be impacted less than overall budgets. And commercial technology products are critical to achieving the efficiencies and cost savings demanded by government agencies that still have missions to fulfill.”
Teleworking and mobile computing are among the most important new initiatives being considered by the federal government. Mobile Internet and email use will surpass desktop Internet and email use by 2014, briefing findings revealed.
Civilian agencies are phasing out bulky legacy systems and adopting more nimble, user-friendly applications to simplify telework, which can increase productivity and decrease energy costs. According to budget briefing findings, the US Patent and Trademark Office claims some $20 million in real estate savings over the past 10 years because of telework.
Cloud computing and virtualization also are emerging trends in federal IT spending, with $20 billion of the proposed $80 billion budget potentially targeted to cloud computing migration. Some 75 percent of civilian agencies are expected to be utilizing cloud technology in some capacity by the end of 2012.
In part because significant risks are associated with mobile computing and cloud-based applications, cybersecurity will continue to top federal IT technology trends, briefing findings indicate. Government-wide, agencies are beginning to integrate security systems into mobile and cloud-based infrastructures. Agencies will first develop risk-aware missions and business processes, followed by enterprise architecture with embedded security, and then implement continuous monitoring programs.