The enthusiasm behind the Modernizing Government Technology Act (MGTA) has sparked a spirited discussion among federal IT leaders about IT modernization. They know that the process is crucial but aren’t always sure where to start, which technologies are the best fit for them or how to most effectively utilize their budget to tackle the project(s) at hand.
Rebuilding or, at least, heavily updating these legacy IT platforms and infrastructures is not a process these agencies take lightly. Immense amounts of planning goes into it to ensure it’s taken care of correctly the first time, if possible. So the ability to effectively use these new platforms and seamlessly build on them is imperative to meeting their budget requirements and still achieving their IT modernization goals. This is where the concept of Application Platforms-as-a-Service (aPaaS) comes into play.
Application Platforms-as-a-Service programs allow their users to integrate data and applications in a controlled cloud configuration. By using aPaaS solutions, government agencies can easily add on to newly-built IT platforms and quickly ramp up their new infrastructure. This is made possible through the use of an accelerator, which essentially functions as a template or framework for creating applications for a system. Employing an aPaaS system not only lessens downtime for these agencies between updates, but also ensures their budget is being used to actually improve their systems, not simply maintain them.
That being said, several hurdles exist that make adopting this helpful technology cumbersome, one of them being outdated mindsets among federal IT leaders. To learn more about the current IT modernization obstacles facing the federal government and the role of aPaaS in overcoming these obstacles, the Federal Technology Insider Podcast spoke with Jason Adolf, Federal Practice Lead at Appian.
Jason explained that the adoption of aPaaS technology will open up doors for federal IT decision makers. “It’s become a lot easier for federal agencies to embrace these tools. With the introduction of Application Platform-as-a-Service, you’ve essential got an easy way to adopt a technology transformation platform that would be usable across a number of functional areas.”
Listen to the podcast to learn more about what aPaaS implementation will mean for IT modernization efforts and current challenges in federal IT.
