White House team calls on big names in tech to help fix government IT

Dive Brief:

The U.S. government is calling on big names in tech to help transform government IT for the modern era, according to a Recode report. White House advisors have reached out to companies like Apple, Amazon, Oracle, Microsoft, SAP and Qualcomm, among others, to assist with the modernization efforts.
The White House is looking to form "centers of excellence" where tech engineers from leading companies can take short stints at different government agencies to help modernize government technology, according to Recode, which spoke to sources familiar with the matter.
The teams also intend to move more government agencies to the cloud, make public data available for use by the private sector and reduce regulation, Recode reports.

Dive Insight:

The Trump administration has worked to court the technology industry, creating a tech summit which brought the president face to face with CEOs from leading tech companies. Though U.S. tech companies have rebuked some of the administration’s efforts, including the immigration order, tech CEOs have leapt to help the U.S. government modernize.

Plans from tech CEOs have even emerged promising to save the government $1 trillion in 10 years through various modernization efforts.

Reaching out to leading companies about centers of excellence of tech engineer rotations are some of the first efforts from the newly formed American Technology Council to rehab federal IT. Many groups are vying to fix and modernize federal IT, including the existing Digital Service installed under the Obama administration, which has worked to increase veterans access to services by revamping the Department of Veteran Affairs online portal.

Some U.S representatives also have legislation in the works, which would create a more efficient way to bring technology into the government.

Fixing federal IT is a long process, with 75% of the $80 billion federal tech budget going to operations and maintenance each year. Many government agencies are already turning to the cloud and moving to improve underlying infrastructure. However, more investment and a fluid tech acquisition process are required to prepare the federal tech for the modern era.