The goal of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) is to eliminate duplication and waste in IT acquisition for the federal government. However, many agencies continue to rely on aging legacy systems for some of their most critical operations. In fiscal 2019, the government spent $29 billion on maintaining legacy systems.
Recently, Senator Maggie Hassan distributed letters to 10 major federal agencies urging them to modernize their IT systems in order to improve cybersecurity and “reduce wasteful spending associated with the maintenance of legacy IT systems.” This is even more important in the new remote work environment where agencies are supporting mass telework.
Agencies who have taken steps to modernize their systems before the pandemic have reported a variety of benefits. For instance, because the Environmental Protection Agency has been ramping up telework readiness over the past decade, operations were not significantly disrupted during the shift to remote work and employees were able to remain productive.
The Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) cyber category makes up a portion of the FITARA score – and while…
