App Modernization Critical to IT Modernization

Upgrading or replacing hardware and networks, moving to the cloud and implementing zero trust usually get the spotlight when the subject of modernizing IT comes up. But upgrading outdated software applications that run IT is also a critical part of the process and can help speed modernization across an agency.

Outdated software is deeply embedded in government IT, supporting myriad applications.

For instance, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released in January of 2023 found that the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) legacy IT environment included 33 percent of the agency’s applications, 23 percent of its software and 8 percent of its hardware. Despite their age, the IRS still relied on those systems as critical to its operations, according to the GAO. Those legacy systems, said the report, ranged from 25 to 64 years old, with some software 15 versions behind the latest iteration.

The IRS isn’t alone among larger federal agencies relying on legacy systems. But that reliance is expensive.

Across the federal government, agencies spend 80 percent of their IT budgets to manage legacy systems, according to the GAO.

According to Brian McConnell, manager of federal software solutions at systems integrator CDW-G, a 2022 study by the Office of Management and Budget showed that the 10 most important software applications across federal agencies in the study cost $336 million per year to maintain.

Legacy Costs May Not Be Obvious

Legacy applications have more than direct costs, too. They can slow agencies’ ability to adapt to the changing demands of the public, as well as interagency collaboration. They carry extreme operational overhead and software development gets bogged down because of manual upgrading processes that, in turn, lead to the inability to quickly and efficiently ship new features to customers, as well as adding higher management costs. Monolithic application design leads to performance bottlenecks, increased resource utilization, and the inability to adopt scalable, cost-efficient cloud native platforms or agile development patterns.

Un-updated applications also increase cybersecurity risks with wide security holes and vulnerabilities that can be leveraged by malicious actors, according to McConnell.

Upgrading or replacing software with modernized applications and automated app development can save agency CIOs more than money, said McConnell. It can save lives, if an agency has critical human assets in the field that rely on up-to-date apps, he said. “Modernizing applications greatly reduces maintenance costs, reduces cybersecurity risks, and offers greater protection for citizens that use services and data,” he said.

Data Is More Critical Than Ever

Data has taken on increasingly greater importance, as federal agencies expand services and capabilities for missions and citizens. It has become the lifeblood of interagency exchange, with agencies wanting to share data as quickly and as transparently as possible. Interagency information exchange can be cumbersome, not integrated, and in some cases entirely manual, said McConnell. Modernized systems can streamline and automate information exchange for better citizen support, better mission effectiveness, and better interagency cooperation, he said.

“There are many situations where organizations are sending tapes from one data center to another because the types of interfaces are just not up-to-date,” said McConnell. “Having modernized applications brings about better data delivery, integration and management modernization strategies.”

Compliance with federal mandates, laws and regulations is also critical to IT modernization. Applications modernization, which can automatically synchronize with changing rules, licensing and other parameters, can make compliance much easier, said McConnell.

Another advantage modernized applications offer is freeing up personnel to do the work where they will have the most impact. Applications management allows not only IT staff, but IT leaders, inside an agency to “not have to manage the past,” said McConnell. “It allows CIOs to become the more forward-thinking planners they thought they’d be when they took on their role.”

Application Modernization Strategy Helps

CDW-G can help agencies plan and implement an application modernization strategy — from assessing capabilities to implementing a platform tailored to needs, said McConnell. CDW-G can also find innovative ways to implement plans, he said.

“We use proprietary tooling with automation that simplifies and significantly shortens the assessment duration when collecting the important metrics for defining a modernization strategy,” said McConnell. “We're able to rapidly assess and determine prioritization initiatives, dependencies, security vulnerabilities, personnel requirements, cost and time estimates, and many other metrics that can limit the time commitment from agency CIOs, IT managers, analysts, contractors, and other related personnel, to quickly get decision-making information in the right hands.”

To create an effective modernization plan, agencies have traditionally taken a long journey, that relies on analysis workshops, code reviews, developer and user interviews, and other techniques that generate a prioritized inventory of what systems and applications the agency needs to modernize. That process can take months, according to McConnell.

CDW-G can shorten and sharpen that process using proprietary technology to rapidly and automatically identify applications that require modernization and, from there, can predict the best outcome within days.

“Our efforts can generate the right information needed for a solid modernization strategy in hours or days, resulting in the same level of detail or more,” he said.

CDW-G’s assessment tool can also help agencies with decisions to replace, re-platform or re-engineer systems as part of a modernization plan, according to McConnell.

Some applications cannot be modernized for several reasons, he said. Reasons might include a third party commercial product that is out of the customer’s control; an application that is shared with a number of other agencies or missions and cannot be updated; or an application that might leverage a “black box of customization” so no one knows its design and the developers are no longer around.

“In some of these cases we can uncover enough information to assist with a ‘lift and shift’ model to move the application as-is to a cloud platform,” he said.

IT Leadership, Managers Can Benefit

Application modernization is an important piece of an IT modernization strategy that allows agencies to keep pace with technological advancements and provide better, more efficient services to citizens and missions.

For agency IT leadership, application modernization can reduce serious exposure, security breaches, mission failure and exposure to risk by keeping software up to date. It can also offer better overall system agility and performance across the agency, as well as allow IT leadership to focus more on where to take the agency in the future, rather than having to manage the past.

For IT managers, modernized platforms can provide better uptime and supportability across the board. In turn, that can help reduce help tickets, as well as streamline and accelerate more automated operations. All these improvements can work together to provide higher productivity and better services for both agency employees and agency customers alike.