UK government is wasting billions on keeping old computers going

Date:
Fri, 06 Aug 2021 10:13:01 +0000

Description:
Legacy systems are putting government agencies at cybersecurity risks, new report claims.

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The UK government is spending obscene amounts of money trying to maintain ancient, outdated computer systems. To make matters worse, regardless of how much it spends, these systems are unable to meet even the basic
cybersecurity, or operational requirements of today.

These are the conclusions written in Organizing for Digital Deliver, a report recently released by the Cabinet Office.

According to the paper, the UK government spends $6.5 billion a year on IT,
of which $3.2 billion goes on keeping legacy systems afloat. Some of these systems are three decades old, allegedly, and in five years time, the cost of maintaining these systems could be as high as $30 billion. Heres our list of the best laptops for work right now Weve built a list of the best mobile workstations on the market Check out our list of the best hybrid working technologies available

The report further claims that some of the digital services offered by the government fail to meet even the minimum cybersecurity standards.

Contemporary systems are data-oriented, allowing businesses to use numerous sources of data to improve their decision-making process. However, even when government agencies do have access to data - they cant make use of it, due to the incompatibility of their legacy systems. Barriers to civil service innovation

The Home Office, the biggest spender according to the report, relies on 12 legacy systems, despite multiple efforts to retire them. Data storage departments are making little use of this data to influence action or decision-making, the report added.

The inability to properly extract data from its computer systems is one of
the UK governments greatest barriers to civil service innovation, it said. Going forward, government departments launching new digital services should focus on having a minimum loveable product, or minimum viable product - worrying only about the products usability, and not its looks.

Finally, the government does not monitor the performance of its computer systems, despite a performance management system being installed back in
2012.

While Labour told the BBC the report shows Cabinet Office minister Michale Goves incompetence and failure to deliver, the Cabinet Office said it is working on reducing the governments reliance on old tech. Here's our rundown of the best workstations right now

Via: BBC



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/uk-government-is-wasting-billions-on-keeping-ol d-computers-going/


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