US Government’s 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal IT
I would love to hear from federal workers on this one and see how comfortable they are about their IT Jobs. Here is a brief summary of the Government’s plan to reduce IT Costs:
- Turnaround or terminate at least on third of underperforming projects in IT portfolio within the next eighteen months
- Shift to a “Cloud First” policy. Each agency will identify three “must move” services within three months, and move one of those services to the cloud within twelve months and the remaining two within eighteen months.
- Reduce the number of Federal Data Centers by at least 800 by 2015.
- Only approve funding of major IT Programs that:
- Have a dedicated program manager and a fully staffed integrated program team.
- Use a modular approach with usable functionality delivered every six months.
- Use a specialized IT acquisition professional.
Look at bullet number 3! Close 800 data centers by 2015? This effort is know as the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI). If you work in IT and hear the “Consolidation” word, rest assured that equates to job loss. Management of the FDCCI was kind enough to put together a FAQ and the question below addresses the concern over job loss:
What will be the impact on jobs as a result of this effort?
“As with any consolidation effort there will be some effect on the workforce. However, with limited IT human resources in agencies, the effort is expected to repurpose FTEs so the data center workforce is able to focus less on maintenance and more on strategic IT initiatives.”
Based on my experience in the IT Outsourcing sector I can safely say that the answer above is nothing more than a whitewash – heads will roll, and a lot of IT Jobs will be lost. Those that lose their IT Jobs will enter a job market that is starting to feel the cumulative effects of consolidation, automation, and offshoring. Offshoring is having a huge impact. Even small businesses are at the point where they can list their projects on sites such as scriptlance.com and get qualified App Developers, Server Admins, and DBA’s at rock bottom prices!
