Federal budget IT shut down highlights the gov’ts IT dependence

GCN reporter Alyah Khan raises some interesting points in “Shutdown Would Highlight Government’s IT Dependence, Experts Say” – most of which map back to the concept of IT efficiency, or the lack thereof.
Yes, “many functions have been automated since the last shutdown in the mid-1990s,” but IT managers are often too focused on deploying the latest and greatest innovation to truly realize the full value of their existing IT infrastructure.  This has created an endemic of waste in most IT environments – ranging from an array of unused software and servers, to costly power sucking PCs.
In fact, 1E’s recent federal agency survey found that while federal IT managers focus on consolidating hardware, they are missing key opportunities to cut costs and improve efficiency. For example, an astounding 87 percent of federal agencies are not completely ready to comply with federal energy reduction mandates. Meanwhile, energy and server efficiency solutions could save these agencies $6 Billion over the next five years.
Even if the anticipated government shutdown at midnight tonight doesn’t materialize, federal IT managers need to rethink their IT priorities and processes. By determining if hardware is actually doing something useful, what software is being used, what energy is being spent on IT, which tasks can be automated or centralized, etc., they can save millions of dollars by creating true IT efficiencies and dramatically reducing energy consumption. If they fail to do so, IT becomes a bigger part of the budget problem rather than helping to find a viable solution.
The driving force behind 1E’s business (products and services) is the idea that we know how to create an environment of TOTAL IT efficiency for you.  The US government’s plight is just another highlight of how the IT landscape has become lax.  IT Efficiency should be transparent, and our focus is to build that “transparent layer of efficiency” across the entire IT organization.  CIOs seem to be jumping at Band-Aid solutions like “the cloud” but there is a lot that can be done internally to build a better IT vehicle.  If the organization is wasteful to begin with, the organization will still be wasteful even after implementing any cloud solution and very little, if any, cost savings will be realized.
It’s time for companies to take the US government as an example and start developing efficient structures of business operations.  Making IT efficient can save jobs and keep parts of the company from shutting down in dire circumstances.
Contact us and we can show you how.