Obama administration to focus 2011 IT budget on streamlining

Increased efficiency and better management are critical to building government information technology in fiscal 2011, said federal IT officials at an event in McLean, Va., on Friday.

"We had over $30 billion worth of IT projects that were either behind schedule or over budget," said federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, who was part of a panel discussion hosted by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association of Bethesda. "[We're] going after, aggressively, IT projects that don't perform, and either halting them, turning them around or terminating them. ... We're being very aggressive in terms of how we're managing information technology."

Citing information sharing and streamlined technology solutions as key spending priorities for the president's $79.4 billion fiscal 2011 IT budget request, panelists highlighted several initiatives to increase transparency and security, lower operational costs and build interoperability across government.

Data center consolidation is a particular challenge, Kundra said, and the government isn't maximizing existing infrastructure, the cost of which totaled $19 billion in 2009. The federal Chief Information Officers Council will lead a detailed inventory of more than 1,100 data centers during the next eight months, and agencies must work on a detailed, comprehensive consolidation plan, he added.

The Justice Department plans to enhance its law enforcement information-sharing program, or "Google for cops," said CIO Vance Hitch. The department's current radio communications technology costs $80 million a year to maintain and doesn't integrate easily with other agencies. One of the key initiatives for fiscal 2010 and 2011 will be updating the equipment and encryptions, Hitch said.

Defense Department Deputy CIO Dave Wennergren noted the need to "relentlessly share information" in thinking about cybersecurity. "We can no longer afford to think about information sharing separate from security," he said.

Stephen Warren, deputy CIO at the Veterans Affairs Department, said $700 million of the agency's $3.3 billion IT budget will be applied to enhancing systems and building new capabilities, such as a single e-benefits entry point for veterans and active-duty personnel. An additional $1.6 billion will be spent on sustaining existing technology. The department also has streamlined its acquisition processes with one hub for all IT projects, he said.

Panelists agreed that cross-agency solutions, like cloud computing, will increase efficiency. Moving to the cloud, or Web-based services, allowed agencies to quickly stand up public dialogues earlier this month, as required by the open government directive. The fiscal 2011 budget includes $35 million for mobile computing platforms and applications.

"That's what the future looks like -- agencies shouldn't have to spend more time learning about technology than looking at the problem they are trying to solve," Kundra said. Looking forward to the fiscal 2012 budget, government will continue investing in macro IT trends, he added.