Technically Speaking

Nothing seems to surprise us anymore when it comes to cybersecurity. Attacks against government agencies and businesses are constantly in the headlines. Just last year, DLT partner, Symantec, discovered more than 430 million new unique pieces of malware across its Global Intelligence Network – that’s an increase of 35% over the previous year.

We all know that sifting through data is an overwhelming challenge for federal agencies. Various data types, stored across a range of disparate siloes, and a lack of resources to analyze the sheer amount of data, has long held up data analytics in government.

US appoints First Exec Federal Cybersecurity Head

Federal fiscal year-end is the busiest season for government IT spending. With only a few weeks left to spend the $3.8 trillion apportioned in Uncle Sam’s 2016 budget, the pressure is on to spend prudently and procure efficiently. But with growing media and public concern that year-end spending is wasteful, how can your agency make smart IT investments of tax payer dollars come September 30?

Declining Spending Begins to Bounce Back with Rising Budgets Over the past six years, we’ve seen a decline in government spending. But recently, there was been an increase in contract spending that is predicted to continue into fiscal year 2017. According to a study by Bloomberg Government, 60 percent of government spending is consistently on services; knowledge-based services, facility-related services, and technology services. The largest product spending is on technology equipment, with aircraft spending in second.

There is a dramatic shift underway in the federal technology landscape on a scale rarely seen more than once every decade or so. Computing environments are evolving from traditional on-premises-only to a hybrid strategy that migrates some infrastructure to the cloud, while keeping some critical systems onsite. According to SolarWinds’ IT Trends Report 2016: The Hybrid IT Evolution, which includes a survey of government IT professionals, hybrid IT will continue to be the norm for the foreseeable future.