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.
On the Department of Defense (DoD) side, debt ceiling legislation calls for $2.4 trillion in specific spending cuts over the next 10 years. This can be seen in budget requests such as those from the Department of the Army. While funding for Army IT programs is expected to increase by 13 percent (to $8.754 billion in 2012), the total Army budget for 2012 is $216 billion, versus $245B in 2011 – a reduction of approximately 11 percent.
A major theme influencing IT spending is the changing role of federal chief information officers. In August 2011, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo broadening the role of agency CIOs from policymaking and infrastructure maintenance, to true IT portfolio management– including governance, commodity IT, program management, and information security. This will enable CIOs to overcome bureaucratic impediments to deliver enterprise-wide solutions.
The August appointment of Steven VanRoekel as Federal CIO means a continued focus on the OMB 25 Point IT Reform Plan spearheaded by former federal CIO Vivek Kundra. VanRoekel can be expected to carry the “cloud first” initiative in the IT reform plan, with a goal of moving 20 percent of the federal IT enterprise to the cloud by 2015.
Data center consolidation efforts also will be key across federal agencies. The Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI) promotes Green IT by reducing the overall energy and real estate footprint of government data centers. The initiative also reduces the cost of data center hardware, software and operations, improves overall federal IT security and increases the use of more efficient computing platforms and technologies.
“Our message for product vendors and solution providers is ‘do your homework,'” added Gaines. “Money will continue to be spent and requirements will be formed where the needs are most critical. If an agency is telling you there’s no money to spend, you probably haven’t delivered the right message to the right prospect.”