Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel testified before a Senate subcommittee today on his office’s progress in reforming federal IT spending and on the need to shift investment toward more 21st century solutions.
“Agencies today face unprecedented pressures — a rapidly evolving technology landscape, rising public expectations, and the need to operate securely in an increasingly interconnected world — all while we are driving toward flat or declining budgets,” he told the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security in a hearing Thursday morning
“To meet these challenges, we need to shift investment away from the costly maintenance and operations of legacy IT systems, to 21st-century solutions that enable us to innovate with less,” he said.
He said that the Administration has capitalized on the 25 Point Plan to reform federal information
technology management.
He also discussed his office’s overall approach to reducing duplication and increasing efficiency in IT, much of which is now laid out in further detail in the Office of Management and Budget’s digital government strategy released yesterday.
During his testimony, he highlighted three major strategies to reducing duplication of IT in government. According to his prepared remarks, OMB and the Federal CIO’s office is focused on:
Maximizing the return on our investment in Federal IT by providing the tools to help
agency leadership look across their IT portfolios and take the necessary actions so that common business functions and services are not duplicated time and again, and make the
right decisions on which investments to fund and which to cut.
Optimizing our IT infrastructure by shutting down and consolidating Federal data centers, shifting to lightweight technologies such as cloud computing and streamlining the use of commodity IT. Ultimately this allows us to support more efficient solutions and creates a more secure Federal footprint.
Building a more efficient and effective digital government by enabling the American people and an increasingly mobile workforce to access high-quality digital government information and services anywhere, anytime, on any device. We must ensure that as the Government adjusts to this new digital world, we procure and manage devices, applications, and data in smart, secure and affordable ways.
His full testimony is available by clicking the document button above.