Information Technology: Agencies Need to Develop Modernization Plans for Critical Legacy Systems

Download or read book Information Technology: Agencies Need to Develop Modernization Plans for Critical Legacy Systems written by United States. Government Accountability Office and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The federal government plans to spend over $90 billion in fiscal year 2019 on IT. About 80 percent of this amount is used to operate and maintain existing IT investments, including aging (also called legacy) systems. As they age, legacy systems can be more costly to maintain, more exposed to cybersecurity risks, and less effective in meeting their intended purpose. GAO was asked to review federal agencies’ legacy systems. This report (1) identifies the most critical federal legacy systems in need of modernization and evaluates agency plans for modernizing them, and (2) identifies examples of legacy system modernization initiatives that agencies considered successful. The 24 agencies also provided 94 examples of successful IT modernizations from the last 5 years. In addition, GAO identified other examples of modernization successes at these agencies. GAO then selected a total of five examples to highlight a mix of system modernization types and a range of benefits realized. This is a public version of a sensitive report that is being issued concurrently. Information that agencies deemed sensitive has been omitted.