"This flashlight was from the 1970s. It was heavy, dim and clunky - and yet he had invested more in the toggle switch than it would have cost to buy a brand-new, energy-efficient LED flashlight. For me, that flashlight became a metaphor for how government still approaches technology: instead of replacing outdated systems with modern, efficient ones, we keep bolting on fixes, hoping the old framework will keep up."
"The federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars each year maintaining legacy IT systems. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), nearly 80% of the federal IT budget still goes toward operations and maintenance of legacy systems. That leaves only a fraction for true modernization and innovation. Many of these systems are decades old. Some agencies still run mission-critical applications on COBOL code written in the 1960s. Others maintain duplicative financial management systems that cost agencies $478 billion as estimated by the GAO in 2023 alone."
A 1970s flashlight repaired with a toggle switch rather than replaced serves as a metaphor for government technology practices. The federal government spends hundreds of billions annually maintaining legacy IT, with nearly 80% of the federal IT budget going to operations and maintenance, leaving little for modernization. Many mission-critical systems date from decades ago, including COBOL applications from the 1960s and duplicative financial systems costing an estimated $478 billion in 2023. Patchwork fixes are expensive, fragile, and ill-suited for a digital-first world, producing higher long-term costs and limited functionality compared with modern replacements.
Read at Nextgov.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]