Hidden data opportunities in the Air Force FY22 budget

April 29, 2021 by Leave a comment

By Lloyd McCoy, senior market intelligence manager

There are IT opportunities with the Air Force in FY22 that are not apparent at first glance. If your organization handles data hosting, analysis and security, you need to look deeper.

FY22 funding will likely see roughly flat to 2% growth for the Air Force’s budget. As with FY21, which had a total budget of about $8B for IT, the largest concentration of IT dollars next year will go to support command and control and logistics.

Remember, however, that these numbers do not represent the total addressable market for IT. That’s especially true within the R&D portion of the Air Force budget, which emphasizes AI, machine learning systems and unmanned systems, as well as establishing a defendable space posture. There are IT dollars to be spent in those areas even if they may not be counted within a specific IT program.

Let’s look at two of these hidden opportunities.

(1) Leveraging data as a strategic asset

The Air Force wants to evolve the role played by data in everything they do – particularly in the area of predictive analytics. The service wants to find ways to use AI and machine learning for things like maintenance, creating savings to be reallocated elsewhere. Predictive analytics also can be applied to military maneuvers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.

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Finding Strategic Opportunities in Flat Federal IT Budgets

November 25, 2020 by Leave a comment

By Jessica Parks, Analyst

While federal agencies are currently making do with their FY20 budgets for IT, the end date for the current continuing resolution looms on December 11. A few agencies, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, have requested a significant uptick in FY21 IT funding for large ongoing projects. However, for other agencies such as Treasury, Justice and Homeland Security, IT funding will remain steady or even drop a bit.

It is important to keep in mind that “steady” does not automatically equal a drop in opportunities. The mission continues regardless, and the focus is going to be on working smarter and more efficiently. Here are three focus points to consider when your customer is looking to squeeze every drop out of a flat IT budget.

1) Automation and Machine Learning Solutions

Departments across the entire federal government, both defense and civilian, are already incorporating automated solutions to make their employees’ lives easier. To work within tight budgets and (sometimes) shrinking workforces,  departments are automating business processes, parts of customer service operations and some cyber operations. The goal is not just speed, but also efficiency and accuracy. Read more of this post

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Top 3 FY21 Opportunities at the Department of Education

October 14, 2020 by Leave a comment

By Jessica Parks, Analyst

With another busy year end in the rearview mirror, it’s time to look to FY21. While large agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services always attract attention due to their budgets and high-visibility projects, it’s important to remember that other agencies across government also require your assistance to deliver, innovate and economize.

One such agency, the Department of Education, has requested $5 million for FY21 to establish a Working Capital Fund, showing that accelerating IT modernization will be a priority. Read on for the top 3 areas poised for significant investment.

1) NextGen Federal Student Aid (FSA)

Located in the Office of Federal Student Aid, this approximately $1B program seeks to improve the experience of external customers (such as students) in their interactions with FSA. The program covers a myriad of areas, from business process management to cybersecurity to data management and analytics. High on the list for FY21 are mobile solutions, self-service tools (think machine learning and AI solutions) and records and content management.  Read more of this post

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Top CAPEX Investment Areas in Navy IT for FY21

September 30, 2020 by Leave a comment

By Toné Mason, DOD Senior Analyst

In accordance with the FY21 President’s budget request, the Navy is on track to receive a boost of more than $200M in CAPEX funding for the new fiscal year, which brings FY21 CAPEX funding for Navy IT to more than $1B.

The top 3 Navy programs seeing the biggest boosts in funding in FY21 are also among the top 5 DOD programs receiving the most CAPEX funding.

Here are the Navy programs at the top of the list: Read more of this post

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Top CAPEX Investment Areas in Air Force IT for FY21

September 1, 2020 by Leave a comment

By Toné Mason, DOD Senior Analyst

Capital expenditure funding is where new opportunities lie for IT spending. In this blog, I will cover the top 5 CAPEX-funded IT efforts the Air Force has slated for FY21:

(1) B-52 Defense Research and Engineering Network – Tinker | FY21 CAPEX: $135M

The B-52 Defense Research and Engineering Network program at Tinker Air Force Base is a relatively new program which received initial funding in FY20. With zero steady state/operation and maintenance funds allocated, this a good time to get involved with this program. The program is focused on providing a fast and efficient network connections for the B-52 engineering virtual desktop environment (VDI). Contractors with experience in network infrastructure, servers, storage, endpoints, workflow management, 5G and cybersecurity should consider this program. Read more of this post

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FY21 Civilian Budget Request: Look Past the Budget Cuts

February 26, 2020 by Leave a comment

By Jessica Parks, Analyst

The president’s fiscal year 2021 budget request has been released, and while you may be laser-focused on this year’s sales, you can bet your government customers are already thinking about next year’s priorities. While the nearly across-the-board cuts at the civilian agencies are grabbing headlines, a deeper dive reveals a treasure trove of high-level plans at a few of the biggest agencies. Factor the following into your FY21 strategy:

Department of Homeland Security

DHS is the top civilian spender on IT and there are some definite growth areas in the agency for FY21. FEMA stands out as a fertile ground for IT vendors as the agency looks to tackle multiple large projects in FY21:

  • Continuing to develop a single cloud-based grants management platform
  • Updating its legacy financial management system
  • Bolstering the efforts of its Enterprise Analytics division to improve infrastructure and data analytics 

Read more of this post

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