Tony Scott: IT O&M Spend Exceeds Platform Development

Federal CIO Tony Scott has said he believes information technology spending among federal agencies is “headed the wrong way,” FCW reported Wednesday.

Scott told a Digital Government Institute 930Gov event audience that most agencies spend more on IT operations and maintenance than the development of new IT platforms, Zach Noble writes.

“This will happen naturally when you have the environment we have where budgets are constrained, CIOs are told, ‘cut costs, don’t spend more money and so on,’” Scott said.

“They cut the easiest thing there is to cut, spending on new application development and refreshing infrastructure.”

Scott said he believes agencies can achieve savings through investments in new IT platforms.

“What you realize is that every two years you can buy gear that’s twice as powerful for the same cost or less.”