Technology needs change fast. When managing technology for a state or local government, it becomes critical to be able to keep up with those changing needs. No longer can local governments wait to undertake a massive technological improvement project each decade or so. Instead, they need to be agile, able to adapt to changes in real time and upgrade their equipment on an as-needed basis.
The pandemic has taught us all the need to be prepared to provide services in different ways at a moment’s notice, and modern government networking and IT strategies need to reflect this. But the questions are: How can agility be built into the network environment? And what exactly does agility mean to different audiences?
Understand the Situation
When talking about government agility, there are three groups that need to be taken into account: the citizens or constituents, the government’s own employees and the teams that deliver government services, which could include government employees or third-party vendors. Each group has its own needs and requirements, but through adoption of the latest networking technologies, the needs of all three can be met.
Citizens demand that the government agencies and officials servicing them provide services efficiently and effectively, in a timely fashion. They also require a government’s services to evolve quickly to meet their needs.
State and local governments also are often some of the largest employers in an area. With a mix of office and field employees consuming technology and services in order to deliver for citizens, agility is critical, as these services are delivered in a variety of ways.
Governments themselves are also required to be agile, and they need the technology foundation to do so. As seen most recently, changing economies and public health emergencies often exacerbate the need for government agility in service offerings.
Infrastructure
A government’s networking equipment should be agile, easy-to-use, and upgradeable as needed. This means investing in infrastructure that is capable of supporting an organization’s current needs while providing the flexibility to adapt to changing requirements. Infrastructure should be designed with modularity in mind, allowing for the addition of new components or the removal of outdated ones without significant disruption to the delivery of services to end users.
At the same time, government networking technology purchase decisions must navigate constricted budgets and an evolving hybrid workforce. Network architectures need to seamlessly and securely connect all workers to the cloud, whether at home, in the office or in the field, while lowering the total cost of operation. Government infrastructure needs to improve the network experiences of both government workers and citizens, while providing a comprehensive security framework that supports zero-trust access control for optimal data protection and implements mature artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies to automate and simplify operations where possible.
In my next post, I’ll continue this theme, but take a more specific look at what types of technology investments can help a government IT team immediately become more agile, while setting the foundation for the delivery of innovations in the future. I’ll also share some insight on how to avoid potential usability and scalability pitfalls along the way.
Todd Nicholson is the Director of Vertical Marketing at Juniper Networks. He leads vertical go-to-market strategy in Juniper’s target industry verticals. Key responsibilities include market development, sales enablement, demand generation and vertical product solutions. Todd has an extensive 25+ year tech industry background working in executive-level sales, marketing, and product management roles for small emerging startups and large enterprise IT industry leaders, including IBM, EMC, and Gartner.
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