Public Sector IT

Modernization:
Creating Agility
and Resilience for a
Changing Digital World
by Joseph Flynn, Public Sector CTO, Boomi

IT modernization has emerged as a top priority

at federal, state, and local governments amid the
disruption of COVID-19 and ongoing cybersecurity
threats. Cloud-native integration plays a pivotal role in
modernizing IT for digital service delivery and building
resilience to withstand disruption.

1
Pandemic and Security Breaches
Heighten Urgency for IT Modernization
e pressure to modernize IT systems Much of public sector IT modernization
and applications in the public sector was involves upgrading applications from in-
already high – then COVID-19 hit, along house servers to modern cloud providers. At
with an alarming set of high-profile security the same time, a number of mission-critical
breaches that threatened or compromised legacy systems will continue operating for
governmental agencies across federal, the foreseeable future.
state, and local levels. at poses a challenge. Applications need Against a backdrop of
e dual disruptions spotlighted the to be connected for data sharing and
weaknesses of outdated legacy IT process orchestration, and that requires
technological change,
systems. Cyberattacks oen aim to exploit integration. How a public sector agency governments are under
vulnerabilities in outdated on-premises approaches integration can make or break
systems, while COVID has exposed the the success of overall IT modernization.
increasing pressure to
limitations of legacy IT in digitizing services. Just like other technologies, integration improve constituent
As a result, IT modernization has taken on has moved to the cloud in the form of services, making them
heightened urgency. Public sector agencies integration platform as a service (iPaaS),
are fast-tracking IT modernization to meet delivering superior deployment speed and as fast, personal, and
key objectives: flexibility compared to traditional methods. agile as commercial
• e public sector needs the more robust In this ebook, you’ll get an inside look at
security of cloud-based IT systems how and why public sector IT is embracing
services have become.
• Citizens need easily accessible, reliable, cloud-native iPaaS to support and sustain KPMG, Government Digital Transformation
and transparent digital services IT modernization and meet the demands of
our evolving digital world.
• Government employees need robust
remote work environments
• Agencies need to reduce the high
technical debt of legacy technology
• Agencies require IT agility and resilience
to withstand disruptions

2
Legacy Technologies
Lack Agility for Swi Digital Adaptation
e pandemic made clear that a top agencies such as the CDC, WHO, and U.S.
objective of IT modernization must be state health departments. e dashboards
delivering integrated experiences — became a go-to resource for millions
instantly connecting citizens, employees, tracking COVID’s spread around the world.
legislators, and partners with the digital IT teams at the federal, state, and local
services and data they need. level mounted valiant efforts to meet COVID-19 vaulted
at proved difficult with legacy pandemic challenges, despite limitations government headfirst
technology. For example, numerous in digital readiness posed by legacy
states suffered failures in unemployment technology and processes. COVID-19 into the next stage
application processing because a spike proved to be a turning point that is of digitization. But
in volume overwhelmed aged mainframe reinforcing government commitment to
systems running the decades-old COBOL modernize and digitize.
the pandemic also
language. In fact, a Deloitte survey found that demonstrated just how
e ranks of COBOL programmers at public 74 percent of government leaders say far many government
sector IT teams had dwindled amid a “silver the pandemic has accelerated digital
tsunami” of retirements, prompting one transformation. at figure will likely rise as agencies still must go to
governor to issue a highly publicized plea agency heads, IT leaders, lawmakers, and become truly digital-
for COBOL experts to help out. citizen groups strategize on next steps.
While the crisis reinforced that legacy
first organizations.
systems don’t provide agility to swily Deloitte,
change direction, government IT also Seven Pivots for Government’s Digital
showed remarkable ability to respond in a Transformation
crisis.
One great example is the COVID-19
dashboards created by Johns Hopkins
University in partnership with public

3
An Acute Need
to Reduce Legacy Technical Debt
At the federal level, the U.S. government Besides high maintenance costs, teams
has shown its COVID-era commitment also deal with limited flexibility and poor
to modernization in 2021 with $1 billion in connectivity for newer mobile and edge
new funding for the 3-year-old Technology devices. 5 Top Modernization
Modernization Fund (TMF) — up
dramatically from $175 million in previous
To minimize technical debt, IT leaders are Goals
engaged in application rationalization
years. — taking stock of their applications and Meet the growing digital
e TMF cash infusion goes hand in hand deciding what to keep, what to replace,
needs of citizens, employees,
with an expanded Federal Information and what to retire, in what order.
stakeholders
Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) One way or another, old, costly applications
program, which uses a scorecard to grade need to be replaced with modern
agencies in areas such as modernization,
Reduce technical debt and
applications, or they need to be rationalized
transparency, risk management, and data reinvest in innovation
to connect with newer cloud applications
center optimization. and services.
Strengthen IT security,
e need for federal modernization is acute. IT and application modernization is
According to the General Accounting Office, resilience, agility
imperative for public sector IT organizations
about 80 percent of the government’s $100 that want to drive innovation. While goals
billion annual IT budget goes to operations Unlock data to and improve
behind IT modernization may vary from
and maintenance of legacy systems. state to state and agency to agency,
agency outcomes
at leaves just 20 percent for what the the common objective is to substantially
government categorizes as development, change the way IT organizations structure Attract and retain talented
modernization, and enhancement. themselves and deliver services. personnel with modern
is “technical debt” ends up starving technology
public sector IT of funding, time, and energy
they could otherwise devote to strategic
initiatives such as digital transformation.

4
Strengthened Cybersecurity
as a Part of IT Modernization
A rash of security breaches affecting the measured, federal agencies rank lowest in
public sector (and private enterprises cybersecurity, also known as the Federal
as well) is also fueling a push for IT Information Security Modernization Act
modernization. (FISMA) category. And federal information
For example, cyberattacks over more than security incidents rose 8 percent in 2020
eight months of 2020 affected at least 10 from the year prior, to early 31,000.
federal agencies, along with state and local Security has captured congressional e Biden
governments, the UK and European Union attention, with the Senate Committee on
governments, and other organizations. Homeland Security and Governmental administration’s
Hackers, believed by federal officials to be Affairs in August 2021 identifying major IT executive order
security flaws and calling for FISMA to be
linked to the Russian government, exploited
revamped.
on cybersecurity…
network service provider SolarWinds,
Microso Exchange technology, and Integration plays an essential role in makes cybersecurity
other vulnerabilities. It’s considered to be cybersecurity. A best-in-class iPaaS equips
improvement a
the worst cyber espionage incident ever agencies to accelerate the move from
suffered by the in U.S. government. legacy systems to cloud applications, central element in IT
at and other high-profile attacks, such without the months of development modernization.
as ransomware episodes that crippled and deployment work oen required
Colonial Pipeline and others, have made with traditional integration. IT resources Federal News Network,
can be channeled into mission-critical IT Modernization and Cybersecurity Are Nearly
stronger cybersecurity a top federal priority.
cybersecurity, instead of integration. One and the Same Now
A June 2021 executive order by President
Joe Biden lays out an ambitious agenda It’s also important that an iPaaS itself
to fortify cyber defense in concert with IT is secure. A solution with FedRAMP and
modernization. StateRAMP certifications helps provide
e need is great. e FITARA scorecard that assurance, along with features such
shows that among seven IT categories as 256-bit encryption and flexibility for
deployment in the cloud or on-premises.

5
Modernizing Applications
and eir Integrations
IT modernization takes advantage of the e question for public sector CIOs,
agility, flexibility, and cost savings available enterprise architects, and application
with new cloud-based applications. teams is: “How do we create modern
But no application ever operates as a integrations among these new best-of-
silo. e old applications being replaced, breed applications?”
whether running onpremises or in the Should federal, state, and local CIOs rely e use of data is
cloud, are nearly always connected to other on the old technology that created the
applications and data repositories. previous hard-wired integrations, or should
transforming the
Chances are those integrations were they modernize integrations at the same economy, government,
time they modernize applications?
built using older technology that involved and society. e Federal
custom coding. Some of the integrations
might be point-to-point. Others might government…lacks
be managed by an enterprise service bus a robust, integrated
(ESB) or other legacy middleware.
In either case, replacing an old application
approach to using data
with a new application requires breaking to deliver on mission,
those old integrations and building new
integrations to leverage data for insights,
serve the public, and
orchestrate processes, and support steward resources.
innovation.
e President’s Management Agenda,
Leveraging Data as a Strategic Asset

6
Supporting Modern Applications
With Modern Integration
Application modernization requires A cloud-native iPaaS can support the needs
integration modernization. Integration of a hybrid infrastructure, as well as provide
modernization doesn’t require eliminating a host of other advantages over legacy
all old integrations or ESBs at once. integration technologies. ese advantages
Rather, it’s an initiative that can proceed include increased business speed and
application by application. agility, with much lower costs and risks from
inaccessible or poor quality data.
But integration modernization does require 98% of state CIOs
a new approach. It starts by establishing Once these new integrations are in place,
a new model and foundation for how you the IT organization can begin replacing say better online
integrate the mix of applications in your the old applications without the risk of experiences for citizens
rapidly evolving hybrid architecture. disrupting business operations. And the
Critically, your new integration platform organization will have reduced its technical is their #1 priority.
should be able to equally support both new debt, freeing resources for new, more
cloud applications and your existing legacy strategic initiatives. 89% of state CIOs plan
applications. And it needs to be able to to expand use of cloud-
easily bridge between those two worlds.
based “as a service”
models through 2023
NASCIO,
2020 State CIO Survey

7
e Benefits of Modernizing
Applications and Integrations
e advantages of a modern, cloud- • Integrated experiences: An iPaaS that
native integration platform are significant couples integration and workflow
compared to legacy middleware and development lets you connect systems
custom-coded integrations. and deliver digital services and data
With an iPaaS, federal,
• Speed: An iPaaS helps organizations to citizens and other stakeholders via state, and local IT
an online portal or mobile app. e
build integrations in one-fih of the
same foundation supports mobile work
leaders can easily:
time required by custom coding and
traditional on-premises middleware. environments for remote staff.
• Deliver integrated experiences
e speed at which you can • Reduced costs: Because your integration to stakeholders
connect new cloud applications to work is done so much more quickly,
enterprise data is key to accelerating development and testing time is • Ensure pervasive connectivity
modernization, and ultimately dramatically reduced, helping trim labor across the enterprise
determines how quickly you can fulfill costs. And with a cloud-native platform,
mission objectives. you avoid all the capital costs of on- • Improve data readiness with
• Agility: With the speed of an integration premises soware, including hardware
accessibility and transparency
platform that uses a low-code upkeep and soware maintenance.
development environment, you can • Reduced risks: Because integrations • Extend legacy architecture to
easily provide data to applications and are no longer brittle, you can make the cloud
people when, where, and how they need changes quickly and easily. IT no longer
it. at helps ensure your public sector needs to handle soware upgrades, • Connect legacy systems and
agency can swily digitize services as they’re automatically provided by best-of-breed cloud apps
while avoiding needless costs. your cloud integration vendor. Baked-in
security and standards support provide • Leverage IoT devices in
consistent and thorough protection to
healthcare and “smart cities”
demanding requirements.

8
Case Study: Integration Modernization
at a Large International Airport
At a large international airport in the U.S., Within seven months, the airport
the IT team struggled with slow, costly standardized all its integrations on Boomi,
integration development and maintenance increasing scalability and availability of
through an on-premises legacy middleware mission-critical systems. In one case, a
platform. at roadblock frustrated Boomi integration streamlined onboarding
the airport’s goals of customer-centric of vendors that lease space at the airport.
innovations, faster IT delivery, and a at allowed the airport to bring in new Every initiative that we
strategic move to a cloud-first hybrid IT vendors faster, reducing revenue loss from are working on has been
environment. vacant airport property.
e airport, owned and operated by city “We consolidated a lot of our revenue
accelerated.
government, modernized its integration streams that were coming from disparate It is not a one-off here
practice with the cloud-native Boomi revenue systems using Boomi, which
AtomSphere Platform. e IT team saw improved the way revenue streams
and there — it applies
a dramatic improvement in integration were being recorded and invoiced to across the board. e
development speed, and substantially our customers,” said an airport solution
reduced maintenance and infrastructure architect. “is allowed our finance team
Boomi AtomSphere
costs. to have more confidence bringing on Platform has helped us
additional revenue streams, which directly
Using the Boomi platform, the airport
affects our financial performance.”
accelerate our time to
needed just four months to complete a
complex airport information hub migration delivery.
that took two years with the previous
Solution Architect, Large International Airport
legacy middleware. Boomi integrations
were rapidly devised for connections
involving dozens of cloud and on-premises
applications, and proprietary and partner
systems.

9
How Boomi Helps Public Sector IT
With Application Modernization
Boomi delivers a unified integration platform across an organization’s data ecosystem. to procurement that can dramatically
with the industry-leading capabilities Such data management is crucial for improve speed and visibility while
that public sector IT organizations need to reducing risks from data errors and lost minimizing manual work.
modernize and rationalize their applications. productivity from inaccurate or out-of- • Workflow automation: Boomi Flow is a
With FedRAMP authorization in place, and date information. low-code workflow automation and app
StateRAMP authorization in progress, the • API management: Boomi’s API lifecycle development environment. Using a drag-
Boomi AtomSphere Platform provides: management capabilities help public and-drop interface, enterprise architects,
• Agile, low-code integration: Boomi sector IT teams publish and manage IT engineers, and even business users can
Integration offers a low-code real-time data used by internal and quickly design workflows and automated
development interface and more than external systems. is provides new tasks that run anywhere: in the cloud,
200 ready-to-use connectors. is ways to share data between internal onpremises, or in a hybrid configuration.
enables IT organizations to build, in and external sources, as well as reducing Boomi Flow lets you easily tie human-
hours or days, integrations that would costs. Boomi API Management also based workflows into operational
require weeks or months of coding by allows you to seamlessly connect processes spanning both legacy and
hand. Some integrations are so easy to your enterprise as needed to other modern application infrastructures.
build that business users, called “citizen government agencies, nonprofit • Data preparation and cataloging:
integrators,” can manage them, freeing partners, and Internet of ings (IoT) Boomi Data Catalog and Preparation
IT developers and architects to work on devices for “smart city” initiatives. is a market-leading intelligent data
more complex and strategic projects. • B2B/EDI management: rough its preparation and catalog technology
• Data quality governance: Clean, accurate cloud EDI service, Boomi facilitates that breaks operational data silos and
data is essential for government data exchange with suppliers to democratizes information for actionable
agencies. On-premises systems for support public sector procurement insights. Based on Boomi’s acquisition
creating a single view of employees, programs. Because the EDI service of Unifi Soware in early 2020, the
citizens, suppliers, and partners are runs on the same platform as other capabilities help organization know
expensive to maintain. Boomi Master Boomi integrations, connecting EDI with what data it has, where it resides, and
Data Hub is an easy-to-use central business applications like ERP systems its context. A self-service data catalog
hub that synchronizes master data is easier than ever. Boomi B2B/EDI lets users “shop” for data to support
and maintains a single source of truth Management brings new automation analytics and business use cases.

10
How Boomi Helps Public Sector IT
With Application Modernization

Synchronize and enrich Manage your trading

trusted data partner network

Boomi Integration,
Boomi Master Data
Hub, and Boomi B2B/
Connect Design, secure,
applications and data and scale APIs EDI Management are
FedRAMP-authorized

Transform known and Build customer journeys

unknown data

11
e Boomi AtomSphere Platform Supports
Key Needs of Public Sector IT Organizations
Connect everything: Boomi connects In addition, the Boomi AtomSphere Platform Contact Boomi’s integration experts today to
applications, APIs, microservices, EDI offers these benefits: learn how cloud-native, low-code integration
services, IoT devices, and other data sources • A low total cost of ownership that can drive application modernization efforts
to accelerate mission outcomes. is possible only with a cloud-native for public sector organizations.
Engage everywhere: rough Boomi platform ABOUT THE AUTHOR
integration and workflows, agencies can • High availability from an auto-healing, Joseph Flynn is the Public Sector CTO for
deliver integrated experiences to citizens, auto-updating platform with 99.99% Boomi. A former CIO and Vice President,
employees, legislators, and partners. uptime Joe brings years of Public Sector experience
Run anywhere: With Boomi, you can deploy • Process efficiency with features like helping organizations and their leaders
applications wherever it makes sense: public automated data mapping, which draws define unique, business focused solutions to
or private cloud, on-premises, or hybrid. A integration insights from best practices complex technology programs.
runtime Atom can be deployed on anything across 50 terabytes of data and more ABOUT BOOMI
from a jet engine to a Nest thermostat. than 17,000 Boomi customers Boomi instantly connects everyone to
BOOMI IS ADAPTABLE • Completely flexible distributed everything with our cloud-native, unified,
Designed for agile development, Boomi architecture supporting our run-anywhere open, and intelligent platform. Boomi’s
helps make agencies themselves more agile. Atom, the real-time engine for Boomi integration platform as a service (iPaaS)
e platform’s low-code interface shortens integrations is trusted by more than 17,000 customers
development cycles with composable, Boomi provides the capabilities that state, globally for its speed, ease-of-use, and
reusable elements that reduce the work and local, and federal government agencies lower total cost of ownership. As the pioneer
complexity required with legacy technologies. need for application modernization. By at fueling intelligent use of data, Boomi’s
And Boomi’s ready-to-use connectors, modernizing integrations along with vision is to make it quick and easy for
templates, and tools from the Boomiverse applications, public sector IT organizations customers and partners to discover, manage,
community boost your team’s speed, can achieve the speed and agility needed to and orchestrate data, while connecting
efficiency, and expertise. Using Boomi, turn agency mission objectives into reality. applications, processes, and people for
agencies can quickly innovate to improve better, faster outcomes.
public services delivery and internal efficiency. Learn more at www.boomi.com.

For more information on Boomi, visit Boomi.com

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