Cloud

IT Transformation Enhances Government Modernization Efforts

Agencies that look beyond merely upgrading equipment are better prepared to reach evolving long-term goals.

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Ryan Petersen has worked in publishing for more than two decades, most of it spent creating award-winning content and strategy for CDW’s family of tech magazine brands. As editor-in-chief, he works with his team to develop compelling and useful industry-focused stories to share with the technology world. Outside of work, Ryan enjoys spending time with his children, traveling, online gaming, and following Iowa Hawkeye sports and Cubs baseball.

Finding a solution to a technology challenge used to be the final chapter in the story. Today, it’s only the beginning.

Solutions are no longer static, but evolve with their surrounding environment. If an agency adopts a hybrid cloud, then the original cloud solution must change. If more handheld devices come online, then endpoint management solutions must change.

As a result, agencies focus as much on transformation as on modernization. The recent “Modern IT Infrastructure Insight Report” from CDW notes that acquiring modern technology is no longer the goal itself; it has become the method that organizations use to achieve long-term goals.

As-a-service models, for example, provide the additional flexibility, speed and security organizations need to operate successfully as they grow. Transformational IT can alter the work environment, taking routine chores, such as patching or sorting files, away from employees and freeing them for increasingly creative and mission-oriented duties.

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Agencies Transform Infrastructure to Meet New Data Demands

But as the transformation continues, agencies may discover that their priorities have shifted. CDW’s report points out that while security is still the primary concern, bandwidth has become an increasingly important issue as organizations acquire more modern technology.

For example, agencies must be able to keep up with the volume of data entering their networks as devices collect increasing amounts of information. The article “Assets in the Air Provide High-Value Data for Feds” shows how fast data multiplies as agencies use drones to collect information, and highlights how they’re boosting bandwidth and storage to cope with it.

Agencies also want to improve productivity for employees, some of whom still juggle paper in order to get their jobs done. “Air Force, MSHA Find Ways to Free Workers from the Burden of Paper” highlights the positive impact of turning to smaller devices able to multitask. For example, mine inspectors working for the Labor Department no longer lug multiple devices to their remote, cramped workspaces; they pick up a Microsoft Surface tablet and go.

The shift from merely modernizing IT to transforming it into a flexible, evolving system is bringing agencies into a brave — and welcome — new world.

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