Government IT Spending Set to Increase in 2016, Says Gartner
Government IT Spending Set to Increase in 2016, Says Gartner by UCStrategies Staff
It is expected that the U.S. Federal government will begin spending more on technology from around 2016, according to the research firm Gartner.
The vice president of government at Gartner, Rishi Sood, stated that in the next two years, government spending on Federal IT will continue to decrease from $74.4 billion this year to $70 billion and $68.2 billion in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
However, it is expected that IT spending will grow again in 2016 with $69.9 billion and then reach $73.4 billion in 2017, according to Sood. He said: “We see this as a short-term decline, not a secular decline in IT spending. If we can weather the downturn of this short-term storm, then there's plenty of money and opportunity [in the future].”
In the short term, the government cutbacks have put a pinch on IT budgets, but in the long run this will provide a great number of opportunities for government solution providers as a greater number of agencies and departments seek to cut costs with cloud computing, cybersecurity and IT outsourcing.
Sood, in particular, noted that Federal health-care and intelligence agencies spend the most in government at present. However, solution providers must understand the key requirements and preferences of every agency. The Environmental Protection Agency, for example, does not require big data solutions, whereas the intelligence community is not seeking to outsource network operations after the latest NSA data leak.
Sood says that cloud computing will push a lot of IT spending for the federal government, and that the government is on the “third wave” of cloud deployment with Infrastructure-as-a-Service adoption becoming more widespread. Sood said: “You can't buy storage today without there being some kind of cloud component.”
Civilian-facing government agencies like the Department of Interior, that recently stated it will spend $10 billion on cloud migration, and the Department of Agriculture, will lead the way for cloud spending; this will be done predominantly as a cost-cutting measure, and will alter the way that government uses IT and interacts with citizens.
Sood added: “Cloud is becoming more central to the IT operation. We're still at the very beginning of cloud spending for the Federal government.” (CY) Link