To Buy or Build: The Question Surrounding Federal IT

Federal agencies routinely use a mix of custom and commercial off-the-shelf, or COTS, products for their enterprise and customer-facing IT solutions. While custom solutions allow greater control and specificity in tailoring software to an agency’s needs and may avoid expensive licensing fees, COTS solutions offer out-of-the-box functionality that agencies can deploy and scale quickly while minimizing long-term operations and maintenance (O&M) and hosting costs, particularly if cloud-based. As the federal government continues to grow in-house tech talent within agencies and through collaborative groups like 18F and the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), federal CIOs and IT leaders must weigh COTS implementation against developing custom solutions.

Watch this panel discussion focusing on federal IT modernization, the merits of custom versus COTS solutions, and how federal leaders can evaluate which approach is best for a particular initiative.