Diverse Objectives Will Drive DHS IT Spending Through 2024

Fiscal, organizational, and other challenges have impacted IT growth prospects at DHS. However, sustained focus on core missions and heightened emphasis on high-priority objectives will stimulate supporting IT investments.

As part of Deltek’s recently released Federal Information Technology Market, 2019-2024, we forecast that spending by DHS on contracted IT goods and services will climb from $7.2 billion in FY 2019 to $8.3 billion in FY 2024 reflecting a 3.0% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). (See chart below.)

Deltek’s forecast projects moderately increased spending on IT services, communications and network services and software and relatively flat spending by comparison on hardware over the forecast period.

IT Investment Drivers

Diverse mission objectives across DHS and its components and the complex nature of several of their component missions continue to be the primary demand driver for a wide range of technology goods and services. These factors require significant technological investments and advances to expand their capabilities and maximize their effectiveness.

DHS’s role as cybersecurity lead for federal civilian agencies continues to mature and expand in the face of heightened priorities and escalating threats. Multiple cybersecurity-related policy directives from the White House and Congress continue to heighten DHS’ profile. The elevation of the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) to the DHS agency level as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) continues the evolutionary expansion of its mission beyond civilian .gov networks to include critical infrastructure as well as security and resilience outreach efforts across the private and public sectors, and technical assistance and assessments to industry infrastructure owners and operators nationwide. Continued threats and varied progress will keep cybersecurity as a major funding area.

The department has been a strong pursuer of cloud solutions, approaches, architectures and shared services to reduce costs, gain efficiencies, and improve speed across the department and its components. Aggressive consideration of cloud adoption continues to drive DHS efforts.

DHS is exploring a wide range of emerging technologies such as data analytics, artificial intelligence and mobility solutions to support its expanding mission demands. DHS is embarking on big data initiatives to better manage large volumes of disparate data, improve information sharing and enhance agency missions. Programs at S&T and ICE are designed to combine sensor data, AI and advanced analytics to improve border and transportation security, evaluate immigration threats, and improve cybersecurity.

High-priority Trump Administration objectives to increase border security personnel and supporting infrastructure will drive investment in mobile technologies and communications. DHS is working to develop a common architecture to include popular mobile technologies from the private sector. These and other efforts will focus DHS attention on its mobile computing environment and strategies to enable end-to-end mobile solutions and enterprise mobile computing capabilities that support component missions.

Finally, DHS’s FY 2019-2023 IT Strategic Plan focuses on simplifying network management and delivering higher quality performance that ensures smooth information flow. Focus areas include maturing to a virtual network, exploring mega data opportunities and data portability, and accelerating network innovation and agility.

Get a free report summary of Federal Information Technology Market, FY 2019-2024.