Platform reuse and open source technology are guiding IT principles being championed by GSA’s CIO, Sonny Hashimi.
The agency’s new IT integration policy requires all new projects that are undertaken within GSA to follow several IT principles. For example, GSA must consider the reuse of its existing platforms before any new investments are contemplated.
“If an existing platform can be scaled, configured or otherwise extended to meet the business needs, it will be the preferred mechanism to satisfy GSA’s business requirements,” Hashimi wrote recently, adding that, “Legacy applications and tools shall be evaluated constantly to identify opportunities to consolidate them into GSA’s modern platforms.”
That includes legacy applications that may be migrated to shared applications stacks or migrating servers to GSA’s enterprise data centers, for example.
All code developed by GSA should be open source as well, and shared under an open license while giving priority to using open source when designing and developing solutions, according to GSA.
Additional principles include cloud first, open data, single sign-on, user experience (UX) principles espoused by digitalgov.gov, ensuring sound records management, and a focus on cybersecurity from the earliest stages of development and throughout the project life cycle.
