“It has been more than two years since the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract was activated, which means the final EIS deadlines are fast approaching. By March 31, 90% of an agency’s telecom inventory must be moved to EIS, and by Sept. 30 that increases to 100%. Those agencies that have not yet chosen an EIS provider risk incurring penalties, but there is even more at stake: our long-term growth and ability to compete...” “Several recent factors have contributed to these changes and are making transformation more desirable. First, the industries that were lagging behind in technology adoption were forced to accelerate implementation during the pandemic. The new paradigm meant that workforces became — and will likely remain for the foreseeable future — distributed, remote and hybrid, supported by new digital tools. At the same time, threats targeting these new avenues are continuing to emerge, and securing the core network is no longer sufficient. New security frameworks like secure access service edge (SASE), which protects the individual worker instead of the network, is most effective when layered on top of architectures like software define-wide area network (SD-WAN). Further, there is this perpetual state of additional threats, from foreign state actors (see the current Russian cyber and war threat), climate change/disasters and terrorism, that the new distributed enterprise must be insulated against. Old legacy systems are extremely vulnerable to these threats unless they are transformed by digital technologies. While meeting the immediate objectives to meet short-term EIS deadlines, government agencies should also keep long-term transformation projects top of mind. While the upfront investment in resources can take time, adopting new solutions can deliver permanent cost savings of up to 50% vs. the rising costs of legacy systems such as copper plain old telephone service (POTS) lines which can run up to $100 per line, as well as delivering superior performance, resilience and overall effectiveness...” Read the full article here. Source: EIS deadlines can be a catalyst for long-term transformation – By Rob Dapkiewicz, March 24, 2022. Federal News Network.