The Risks of Failing to Modernize Government Network Architecture

Given the complexity of the mission for defense, intelligence, and other government agencies, it’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind and challenging to think in the long term.

However, focusing only on the day-to-day has a cost. Ignoring pressing priorities like modernizing network architecture raises the risks of failure because it introduces significant vulnerabilities and inefficiencies.

Continuing to operate on yesterday’s IT backbone is costly and can put lives in danger. While you’re standing still, adversaries are adapting and finding new ways to poke holes in your perimeter. Once inside, they can wreak havoc. That, along with increasing regulatory requirements, makes modernization no longer optional—it’s a mission-critical necessity.

How Legacy Systems Create Vulnerabilities: Cybersecurity Risks

While it may make financial sense to continue following a regime of fix and repair, the costs become unbearable over the long term. Defense, intelligence, and government agencies increasingly see the risks in the form of damaging incursions into systems that have exposed critical information to the outside world.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently documented several instances where the continued operation of legacy systems, operating with known security vulnerabilities, unsupported hardware, and aging software, created nightmare scenarios for agency stakeholders and by extension, US taxpayers.

In 2019, the GAO specified ten legacy IT systems across the government that had reached the critical stage for modernization. Over the next four years, agencies addressed eight of those systems. The need to invest “is essential to addressing mission needs, dealing with security risks, and reducing operating costs,” the GAO told Congress.

Short of that investment, the government could continue to see high-profile failures such as:

• The well-documented Solar Winds attack, attributed to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. The GAO reported that the hackers accessed sensitive U.S. government systems by hacking the SolarWinds network management software. It also described the attack as “one of the most widespread and sophisticated hacking campaigns.” Investigators believe that the hackers used a “backdoor” to the software to insert malicious code that gathered and extracted information from numerous government systems.
• A 2023 data breach at the Department of Defense that resulted in exposing sensitive information about military personnel. The breach was attributed to a misconfigured government cloud email server that was networked to the internet without requiring a password. According to the DOD, the server stored “approximately three terabytes of military emails.”

Without continued and ongoing focus on modernizing government network architectures, the risk of such incidents continuing remains unacceptably high.

Operational Inefficiencies and Compliance Challenges

Cybersecurity is among the most prominent and pressing risks from outdated IT systems. But these older, aging networks can also cause day-to-day problems that interfere with operations and run afoul of regulatory compliance requirements.

By their nature, legacy systems limit an agency’s flexibility in responding to mission needs because they can’t do as much as systems with up-to-date hardware and software. They also become an increasing drag on budgets by driving up maintenance costs and introducing inefficiencies.

A stark example is the transition from the Air Force’s System 1, a program designed to support aircraft readiness. NextGov included System 1 on its list of the ten most expensive and ineffective IT systems, citing its age at the time (fourteen years) and deeming it to create moderate risks. Overall, the cost of the outdated systems was estimated at $337 million a year.

Obsolete networks also create challenges in complying with regulations. Older systems are often incompatible with the National Institute of Standards and Technology standards, driving up costs and introducing vulnerabilities. A study estimated that bringing the networks into compliance could save as much as $20 billion in the future.

The DOD is among the agencies that face the biggest and costliest challenges. For example, the Navy saved $150 million over several years by committing to decertifying specific legacy networks, especially those that provided duplications in coverage. Those savings were part of the Navy’s “Cattle Drive” initiative to streamline the service’s vast government network architecture.

The Navy’s savings are just scratching the surface. The government states that its Federal Data Center Optimization Initiative led to the closure of 6,000 data centers and a savings of $5.8 billion over twelve years. Failure to modernize network architectures places a heavy weight on the operation of government defense, intelligence, and other agencies.

Strategies for Modernization: Building Resilient Network Architecture

With such high stakes, government agencies must accelerate efforts to modernize networks to provide better security and improve operational efficiency. Sumaria Systems has more than four decades of experience engaging in complex IT system projects as a resource for government agencies. Here are a few best practices to frame your network modernization project:

• Commit to implementing the government’s zero trust architecture for cyber defense. Zero trust means exactly what it says: Systems must challenge every request for access to systems, no matter how trustworthy the request may seem. Networks of tomorrow no longer simply guard the perimeters; they maintain continuous vigilance.
• Invest in cloud-based and/or hybrid solutions. The day of every agency maintaining its own system architecture is long over. Each can pay for only the portion of the network that it uses, and the cloud frees your agency to focus more on the mission than IT management. The DoD has made excellent progress in cloud adoption by developing cloud environments that support mission-critical issues.
• Utilize automation and AI to help improve detection and response. Humans will always be part of the mission, including guarding against illegal intrusions, but AI can provide critical efficiencies that enable them to focus their work. Modernize government network architecture to take full advantage of the emerging automation world.
• Create a flexible roadmap to phase in the changes. Upgrading networks won’t happen overnight. Program managers and acquisition officers must take a long approach and be unafraid to lean on vendor partners for help.

Act Now with Sumaria Systems

Failing to modernize is not an option. It threatens readiness and national security. The future requires prioritizing the modernization of government network architecture across all agencies. The right partner can help, and Sumaria Systems has decades of experience in the evolving nature of government IT.

Future-ready networks. Mission-ready operations. Modernizing your base network infrastructure is critical for increasing mission readiness, scalability, and security. Sumaria Systems provides the expertise and innovative solutions to integrate, protect, and optimize your network for peak performance. Discover how Sumaria can help you build a resilient, future-ready infrastructure.