Virginia’s IT inventory revealed 2,552 apps

Virginia has developed a six-year plan for dealing with its hundreds upon hundreds of applications used by state agencies, state Chief Information Officer Bob Osmond said in a recent interview.

The first phase of the plan is already complete: Taking inventory of all the state’s apps and grading them on measures like how many cybersecurity vulnerabilities they have and how well supported their platforms are. Osmond said the inventory revealed the state is using 2,552 applications, 74 of which have “acute” needs and must be dealt with within the next one to two years.

“We all know that we have a tech debt problem, that we have lots of applications that are cyber insecure, that are not on supported platforms,” Osmond said. “It is a constant challenge and remains a top CIO priority in most states. Virginia is no exception.”

More than 200 Virginia applications with less pressing issues have “imminent” needs. “They’re OK, but we know they’re going to be a problem at some point,” he said.

The state will conduct an annual assessment to keep the app modernization project on track. Osmond said his agency also plans to look for overlap in apps that serve generic functions and will potentially consolidate redundant services.

“The idea is that we have situational awareness of all of the critical applications that we use in the state that have critical citizen capabilities,” he said. “And we’ve got to take care of those because if those agencies are unable to use their technologies, then that hinders their ability to deliver their services.”

Though the project sketches out a six-year timeline, Osmond said 2031 won’t be the year Virginia stops updating its apps.

“We’re probably going to be looking at the next set of applications, because one of the things that’s wonderful about IT is that it’s a neverending challenge,” he said. “Every year, every month, there’s something new coming into the equation.”