On Tuesday, US president Donald Trump signed the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law, which contains a provision that could force the federal government to upgrade its out-of-date IT systems. The Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act was enacted as part of the NDAA, but it is facing some roadblocks from Congress.
The MGT Act creates a $500 million fund over the course of two years to be used for modernizing legacy IT systems. The US government currently spends about $80 billion a year on IT, and some estimate that 80% of that is spent solely on maintaining old systems.
As part of the MGT Act, agencies will also be able to bank savings from the fund to be used for future IT endeavors, if so needed.
Signing the MGT act into law could be the “most incredibly powerful thing that Congress has done in a decade,” according to Bob Gourley.
“The MGT law applies to all of government, not just DoD,” Gourley said. “It establishes new methods and authorizations for modernizing IT that have not been in place before, and will result in more economical use of resources and much greater motivation to modernize. This will help reduce cybersecurity problems and will end up being very strategic for the nation.”
For more see: TechRepublic
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