Analysts with IDC Government Insights have released their assessment of the technologies, solutions and services that will be impacted by President Obama's 2010 State of the Union address and the information technology implications from a proposed three-year discretionary budget freeze. While for government IT investments it's a potentially mixed bag, IDC Government Insights believes there's more good news than bad in the President's State of the Union address, and that government agencies have unprecedented opportunity to put IT to work like never before.

In the perspective, 2010 State of the Union: Heating Up IT Investments During a Budget Freeze, Document # GI221868, IDC Government Insights states that the implications of the State of the Union address portend a big shift for government information technology.

The report identifies new investment priorities to include infrastructure, education and training, and war fighter return. The potential downside of the news is the looming budget freeze proposal for federal discretionary spending. Thom Rubel, Vice President of Research for IDC Government Insights states, "Now is the time to get on the IT systems migration path or get caught up in the freeze and risk certain death." The firm emphasizes that, since it costs money to stand still, the pressure will be greater than ever on agencies to modernize systems, support a services-oriented architecture, and experiment with affordable cloud-based services.

In the report, IDC Government Insights elaborates on two primary recommendations. The first focuses on taking out costs and building in business value of IT infrastructure. The firm believes that federal agencies have a chance to work toward migrating to new, more standardized systems that will give them greater flexibility for the future. The second recommendation focuses on implementing enterprise technologies for government services delivery. IDC Government Insights believes that adroit government CIOs can help agencies reduce discretionary spending through strategic investments in critical IT resources.

The report also provides an overview of technologies, solutions and services to watch during this time of changing priorities. In addition, IDC Government Insights believes that, to transform government services, agencies need systems and processes that are connected, not siloed as much of government data and applications are today. Priorities should include implementing enterprise content management, record management, and process management infrastructure that is integrated by collaborative content management tools and policies.

For additional information about this report, or to arrange a one-on-one briefing with an IDC Government Insights analyst, please contact Sarah Murray at 781-794-3214 or sarahbethmurray@gmail.com. Reports are available to qualified members of the media; reporters should email sarahbethmurray@gmail.com. For information on purchasing reports, email info@idc-gi.com.

About IDC Government Insights

IDC Government Insights is headquartered in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area in Falls Church, Virginia, with additional offices worldwide. IDC Government Insights is uniquely qualified to track, analyze, and forecast government technology spending based on in-depth government budget and spending analysis globally. Expert analysts examine IT value based on government-defined key result areas; decipher policy and regulatory goals to identify game-changing government strategies and inform critical decision making; survey government decision-makers to determine effectiveness of IT vendors’ go-to-market strategies; along with government-centric metrics and rankings of suppliers’ effectiveness in addressing specific government business problems, all with absolute independence and transparency. IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology market. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology, media, research, and events company. For more information, please visit www.idc-gi.com or email info@idc-gi.com.