Trade group calls on lawmakers to focus on cloud migration, cybersecurity and acquisition reform in NDAA discussions

The Alliance for Digital Innovation has called on lawmakers to prioritize five key areas including cloud migration, cybersecurity and acquisition reform as they work to enact the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2023.

In particular, the trade group said it supported the inclusion of bill language that would require the Department of Defense to produce a study on costs associated with underperforming software and other IT.

“ADI supports the inclusion of Section 236 in the House-passed version of the bill that requires the DOD to produce a study on costs associated with underperforming software and information technology,” the group wrote in a letter Friday to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.

It added: “The results of this study will assist the military departments and the other information technology leaders across the DOD to better identify systems, processes, and workloads that should be moved to more modern, cloud-based environments.”

Section 236 was included in the version of the bill that was passed by the House of Representatives on July 14.

ADI also said it would support the inclusion of language in the bill to revamp the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) and the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). Earlier this January, lawmakers introduced legislation to update FISMA, but it did not pass into law.

“We believe the FedRAMP program has provided a strong security foundation for the federal government, and it could continue to thrive with formal Congressional authorization and additional authorized funding for its operations,” the trade group said.

It added: “FISMA improves government security and promotes adoption of modern, cloud-based commercial security solutions that are the foundation of zero trust environments. In general, these pieces of legislation will provide support to programs and offices that support security and drive compliance across the federal government.

In addition to cloud migration, cybersecurity and acquisition reform, ADI says lawmakers should prioritize bill language that could improve workforce-related government IT solutions, as well as digital, AI and data solutions.