Consolidation in a complex and aging enterprise IT environment
Consolidation in a complex and aging enterprise IT environment
Publish Date: 2026-03-18 14:31:00
Source Domain: www.nextgov.com
Federal agencies are under mounting pressure to do more with less — and nowhere is that tension more acute than in their IT environments. Decades of incremental investment have produced sprawling, fragmented portfolios that are expensive to maintain, difficult to secure and not always aligned with mission priorities. At the same time, agencies are navigating conflicting priorities as they strive to maintain aging legacy infrastructure, while simultaneously driving modernization. Managing both is not just complex, it is incredibly demanding.
I shared my views on IT consolidation on this platform after capping a 30+ year career in government IT (see Hard lessons: A CIO’s playbook for consolidation — Nextgov/FCW).
I find I have more to share. IT consolidation, done smartly, offers a path forward. It also requires more than technological decisions. It demands commitment, an IT vision and strategy, strong leadership, disciplined planning, dedicated change management and a clear-eyed view of real and potential barriers and risks.
Key agency challenges
Before embarking on IT consolidation, agencies should honestly and openly confront the conditions that can make the journey difficult. The most common challenges:
- Workforce restructuring and skill gaps;
- Budget constraints;
- Legacy systems that are too hard to kill;
- Siloed organizations across the enterprise;
- Data fragmentation;
- Customer records are fragmented across systems with no unified view;
- Poor oversight of IT, generally (e.g., shadow IT operations, decentralized procurements, poor FITARA compliance);
- Conflicting mission priorities, portfolio bloat, inefficiencies and security vulnerabilities.
The case for consolidation
Done well, IT consolidation delivers meaningful, lasting returns across multiple dimensions:
- Savings and Efficiency gains. They achieve economies of scale, reduce costly duplication of systems and workforce and improve vendor negotiations.
- Operational Improvements. Consolidation simplifies…
