FREMONT, CA: A Dell sponsored PSB survey unveils the dependence of the federal government on legacy IT across the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Japan, Brazil, India and China. The survey found that 70 percent of federal IT decision makers run their agency on outdated systems. The report further added that around 50 percent have operating systems that have exceeded their official end-of-life.

The dependence on legacy IT is affecting the government agencies. The outdated systems are expensive to maintain and puts critical data at risk. The survey also reported that around 42 percent of the agencies were affected by the cyber crime, followed by the cost of system support.

The operating systems used include Windows 7 (2009) or Windows 8 (2012) (61 percent) and Windows Server 2008 (34 percent), all of them have crossed their end of life. Even 53 percent of agencies are found using the software or operating systems not supported by the vendor. The Federal respondents found around 46 percent of IT infrastructure systems and 39 percent of storage collaboration systems are in need of modernisation. They also pointed out that the lack of information about the recent technologies, and conflicting digital transformation as the major hurdle to IT modernisation. The agencies are also using aged hardware system such as desktops, servers, network routers, network switches and laptops.   

The agencies can invest in modernised IT systems and adopt software-based environments, cloud technology and secure mobile devices to be a future ready agency. Future- ready technology can help the organisation to implement user demands, and can drive savings through reduced maintenance costs, making the transition away from legacy IT easier.

“The alarming percentage of critical applications running on legacy IT systems, as revealed by our survey, aligns with many of the concerns currently being voiced by government leaders and agency customers alike. For many organizations the first step is making the commitment to virtualized, software-based environments. Agencies need this future-ready IT environment to unlock the power of innovation, support digital transformation, protect mission-critical data and reduce maintenance costs,” says Steve Harris, vice president and general manager, Dell Federal.