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By Mel Duvall
The Obama administration is looking towards new technologies such as cloud computing and data center consolidation as a means to keep a lid on federal IT spending.
In the proposed 2011 budget, which was released Monday, the Obama administration proposed only a slight increase for IT spending -- set at $79.4 billion, which represents a 1.2 percent increase over the 2010 budget. In an effort to do more with less, the administration is looking to federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra to continue his efforts to leverage cloud computing technologies throughout government operations.
The administration is also pushing for government agencies to adopt more of a private sector approach to IT spending in an attempt to do more with existing budgets.
"The federal government spends tens of billions of dollars on information technology, but fragmentation, poor project execution, and the drag of legacy technology has not delivered the productivity and performance gains to government that are found when IT is deployed effectively in the private sector," says the budget document.
In the big picture, the administration proposes spending a record $3.83 trillion for fiscal 2011, which includes a projected deficit of $1.27 trillion. The budget proposes $43.6 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes $734 million in funding to deploy advanced imaging technology (body scanners) at airports. It also includes $346 million for a cybersecurity initiative to protect Federal computer systems.
The budget also targets $78 million for the Department of Health and Human Services for health IT initiatives, a $17 million increase over the 2010 budget.
In an effort to find savings, the administration is urging its agencies to look for ways to consolidate and centralize IT operations. It notes that the number of federal data centers more than doubled from 432 in 1998 to some 1,100 data centers as of last year. The administration does not set out a timeline for the consolidation initiative, but indicates that a strategy is forthcoming.
While the budget doesn't get into details, it lays out a strategy to use new technologies such as cloud computing as a means to streamline federal IT operations.
"Under the leadership of the federal chief information officer, the administration is continuing its efforts to close the gap in effective technology use between the private and public sectors," the document states. "Specifically, the administration will continue to roll out less intensive and less expensive cloud computing technologies; reduce the number and cost of federal data centers; and work with agencies to reduce the time and effort required to acquire IT, improve the alignment of technology acquisitions with agency needs, and hold providers of IT goods and services accountable for their performance."
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