Budgetary, policy, workforce issues influencing DOD and intelligence community IT priorities
Information Technology spending by Department of Defense (DOD) and Intelligence Community (IC) agencies will continue to grow as they work to keep pace with the evolution of both the threat landscape and technology development, according to Deltek.
Intelligence community
The increasing sophistication of adversaries, expanding threat landscape, rapid pace of technology advancement and data proliferation continue to fuel the IC’s demand for tools and resources to meet mission objectives.
IT solutions such as cloud computing, modern data management, big data, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence are in high demand by intelligence agencies with increasingly complex national security missions.
Deltek forecasts growth in IC IT investments from $9.9 billion in FY 2019 to $11.0 billion in FY 2024 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 2.2%.
Technology as a strategic enabler
Technology innovation is a major tenant of the 2019 National Intelligence Strategy (NIS), which is critical for the IC’s ability to provide strategic intelligence, anticipatory intelligence, cyber threat intelligence, counterterrorism, counter-proliferation, and counterintelligence and security.
Budgets and IT demands are increasing
IC overall budgets and IT budgets continue to rise to provide resources to combat the increasing threat landscape. IT solutions such as cloud computing, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, machine learning, cybersecurity and new cutting-edge technologies will remain in high demand by IC organizations to fulfill their missions.
Push for increased collaboration
In order to keep pace and deliver actionable intelligence information in a timely manner, IC agencies will continue efforts for broader cross-agency collaboration, coordination, information sharing, IT integration and elimination of silos.
“Artificial intelligence, cloud computing and analytics solutions are empowering the Intelligence Community to share and analyze growing amounts of information more efficiently, effectively and at a faster rate,” said Angie Petty, Senior Principal Research Analyst at Deltek.
“The volume and diversity of data and intelligence – such as imagery, geospatial and open-source – drive the Intelligence Community’s steady demand for advanced, and increasingly automated, solutions,” said Christine Fritsch, Principal Research Analyst at Deltek.
Department of Defense
The Department of Defense’s IT ecosystem is undergoing a profound transformation. The DOD continues its shift to a new cloud-based infrastructure that will eventually enable the enterprise deployment of artificial intelligence.
Military departments are working to provide capabilities to the warfighting edge using cloud-based platforms that also employ enterprise-wide big data analytics delivered via mobile devices.
Leveraging new acquisition authority and tools such as Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs), process transformation and enhanced cybersecurity capabilities, the DOD is introducing commercial technologies at an unprecedented rate.
Deltek forecasts the Department of Defense contractor addressable IT market to show modest grow from $53.0 billion in FY 2019 to $55.7 billion in FY 2024 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 1.0%.
CIO authority driving advancement
The DOD CIO now has greater authority to determine appropriate IT modernization budget levels for the military departments, a development that should help drive common standards and interoperability.
Enterprise-IT-as-a-Service (EITaaS) is important to modernization
EITaaS initiatives are key modernization efforts enabling the DOD to make greater use of cloud computing, advanced analytics and enterprise-level artificial intelligence/machine learning.
Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) required for entry
The new Pentagon CMMC requiring contractors to obtain 3rd-party cybersecurity certifications in order to be considered for new DOD contracts will be a “gate keeper” for defense contracts going forward.
“The Department of Defense’s transformation to a multi-domain operations construct will naturally drive unprecedented joint force integration across the DOD, which requires common standards, interoperability, and command and control,” said Alex Rossino, Principal Research Analyst at Deltek.
“Cybersecurity and supply chain security are top of mind for the Department of Defense leadership and Congress. Contractors should be prepared for increased scrutiny of their IT environments, as well as the potential financial impact of complying with new security requirements,” said John Slye, Advisory Research Analyst at Deltek.