How does the federal executive and IT professional with 20-year experience within government system see the current situation?

Question: How would you characterize the general state of Federal IT?
Answer: Uncertainty in its worst, meaning policy uncertainty, budget uncertainty and technological uncertainty. A whole lot of new incentives, projects and investments hastily declared, to be put on hold later. Yeah, yeah, we started on premise that the federal cloud is good and the federal dedicated data center is bad, but we stuck on both sides of the fence. The cloud still has to prove that it’s reliable for federal business and the emerging server cluster architecture based on low power (about 10 Watt) processors is a game changer.

Question: What about cyber security?
Answer: Cyber security is more complicated issue. It reminds me homeland security boom in the aftermath of 9/11. You spent a whole lot to harden your defenses, you know that you do the necessary things, but you don’t know whether you got it right or if it makes you more secure. Now is the time to asses and review what has been achieved and what has yet to be done. Meantime boosting investments in Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery is a safe bet.

Question: What opportunities can there possibly be in the Federal IT market given the current uncertainty?
Answer: We need affordable scalable low-energy footprint High Performance Computing (HPC) platforms. A number of federal HPC applications can be solved without only astronomically priced custom-designed supercomputers.

This is just a glimpse of market intelligence provided in our reports.

In the years to come the Federal IT market will be driven by two major forces – pressure to cut federal IT budgets without losing efficiency and the implementation of new technologies. The current Administration has started an overhaul of the entire Federal IT organization, betting on new technologies, “rent, not buy” principle and open source. The next Administration will have little choice but continuing these policies. Lack of qualified IT personnel could set back but not thwart these plans.

With a cumulative market valued at $518 billion (2013 – 2018), the U.S. Federal IT market will grow steadily – at about 3% CAGR over the period 2013 – 2018. The projected growth rate of 3% is less than historical average 6% in the first decade of 21st century, reflecting not only struggling economy and budget pressures but also confidence in better performing government IT machine at lower costs.

The focus is on deployment of technologies proved their worth in the private sector. The technology segments like business intelligence, cloud computing, eDiscovery, GIS and geospatial, non-relational database management systems, Smart Grid, SOA, unified communications and virtualization will see double digit growth in the period 2013 – 2018. Total annual U.S. Federal IT market will surpass $93 billion by 2018.

The report answers the following questions:

• What policies will shape the U.S. Federal IT market in the period 2013-2018?
• What segments of the U.S. Federal IT market are poised for fast growth?
• What are key trends in the U.S. Federal IT market?
• What are market opportunities in providing IT solutions for Government sector?

The report provides detailed year-by-year (2013 – 2018) forecasts for the following U.S. Government market segments:

• Hardware, software, IT consumables and contracted IT services;
• Agency-by-agency detailed forecasts for both defense and civilian sectors;
• Fast growing/high priority technology segments;
• By investment type – National Security System, Mission Area Support, Infrastructure & Office Automation Telecommunications, Grants to State and Local IT Investments, Enterprise architecture and planning.

The report covers the following fast growing / high priority technology segments provides year-by-year (2013 – 2018) forecasts:

• Business Intelligence
• Cloud Computing
• Cyber Security
• eDiscovery
• GIS and Geospatial
• Health Information Technology (HIT)
• High Performance Computing
• Non-Relational Database Management Systems
• Open Source
• Smart Grid
• SOA
• Virtual Events
• Virtualization
• Wireless Voice and Data.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
Table 1 – U.S. Federal IT Market Forecast 2013-2018, $Mln
Table 2 – Department of Defense IT Market Forecast 2013-2018 by Agency, $Mln
Table 3 – Civilian Agencies’ IT Market Forecast 2013-2018 by Agency, $Mln
Table 4 – U.S. Federal IT Market by Defense and Civilian Agencies 2013-2018, $Mln
Table 5 – U.S. Federal IT Market Forecast 2013-2018 by Hardware, Software, IT Consumables and Contracted IT services, $Mln
Table 6 – U.S. Federal IT Market Forecast 2013-2018: Fast Growing / High Priority Technology Segments 36