Get Ready for a Seismic Shift in Federal IT

Four years can change a lot in federal technology. As the Bush administration prepared to hand power to the Obama team in late-2008, no mission-critical government systems were housed in computer clouds, there were fewer than two dozen government-built mobile applications and the nation had never had a chief information officer. Now new systems are moving to or being built in the cloud every month, there are more than 100 government apps and as for federal chief information officers—there have been two.

There is no crystal ball into the future of federal technology, of course, but the short list of emerging trends includes a seismic shift in the role of chief information officers, more collaborative technologies and a workplace that moves beyond ‘bring your own device’ to ‘bring your own everything.’

• Trend 1: Empowering the CIO: First off, the next presidential term or two likely will shift the balance of power, both within the federal technology shop and between technologists and other workers. This could involve concentrating authority—including budget decisions—in the hands of agency CIOs.
• Trend 2: Collaborative Tools: The face of federal technology likely will be changed by collaborative systems developed in the consumer sphere that are just now making their way into government.
• Trend 3: Bring Your Own: The next four to eight years in federal IT will be defined by what workers increasingly lack, experts say, including agency-issued phones, tablets and even laptops for telework. “Bring your own device” policies already have been rolled out at some agencies, mostly on a voluntary basis. As the years go by and agency-issued BlackBerrys and other product lines wear out, those policies will become increasingly common and, in some cases, mandatory, experts say.