Legacy IT dominates US government spending

More than 77% of US government IT spending is swallowed up by legacy IT, and the proportion of agency budgets going towards operations and maintenance of IT systems is on the rise, IDC said.

Research from the analyst company found that 77.7% of spending on IT across all US government agencies is spent on support for legacy systems, with just 22.3% going towards development and enhancement.

Eight years ago spending on legacy systems accounted for closer to 66% of IT spending, but the proportion has been steadily increasing since this time.

Some agencies, such as the Army Corps of Engineers, allocate nearly 100% of their IT budgets to maintaining legacy systems. And some are spending huge amounts of money on operations and maintenance, such as the Department of Health and Human Services, which is spending over US$8.8 billion ($11.5 billion) per year.

In a blog post, IDC Government Insights Research Director Shawn P McCarthy said government efforts to address this problem and modernise IT infrastructure have had trouble securing the required funds.

Federal CIO Tony Scott has requested a pool of US$3.1 billion specifically for upgrading older systems, but the funds needed for the program have not yet materialised, he said. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently approved a Bill that could finally provide the required funds, but this still requires Senate approval.

“We do believe the legacy system issue will eventually be addressed because it has to be addressed. It’s very much the elephant in the federal IT budget room,” he said.

“We will continue to track the legacy systems issue in the months ahead, and we look forwarding to hearing other folks’ thoughts on how the issue should be handled.”

Image courtesy of Kristine Full under CC