Too often we see government agencies sitting on the sidelines of the current technology revolution.  Far from being change for change’s sake, the current IT revolution, including tech like cloud, mobility, and the Internet of Things, is disrupting the ways in which we work for greater efficiency, productivity, and to enable activities and outcomes that were previously the imaginings of futurists and science fiction.    But do government agencies really need to be on the sidelines?

It is true that government agencies are hampered by legacy environments and lean budgets but, as Anthony Robbins, Vice President of Federal at Brocade, discussed in a recent article, the federal government needs to jump into the disruptive tech environment and start the modernization process, despite the obstacles.

Robbins, however, doesn’t just throw this prescription out and leave government CIOs to their own devices, wishing for bigger budgets.  Instead, he offers practical advice for government IT teams to make the transition to “a user-driven, software-centric virtualized” environment.  The key for Robbins lies in embracing open source initiatives such as OpenDaylight and OpenStack that make up part of President’s Open Government Partnership Action Plan.  Open source initiatives have been demonstrated not only to reduce costs, but also to spur future cycles of innovation.

To read more about why disrupting the legacy technology environment in federal government agencies is vital to mission success click here…