GAO: SSA databases need a tune-up

The Social Security Administration will be facing a flood of demands in the next few years as baby boomers start retiring and Social Security numbers are being used for more programs, including verifying the legal status of foreign workers, a new General Accountability Office report says. Ultimately, this means that the system needs work--and a lot of it--to be ready for a future with greater stress on its databases.

The system is used for a wide variety of programs, including processing and distributing entitlement payments, and validating the identity of people applying for driver's licenses. And it will be used for much more in the future.

"Although SSA's existing IT infrastructure is sufficient to support current outgoing data exchanges, SSA officials and the agency's partners anticipate that the number of these exchanges will continue to increase and become more complex, placing greater demands on the infrastructure and systems," the GAO report said.

GAO warned that SSA has not implemented the IT management practices to effectively oversee the changes in the data exchanges. "If these analyses are not completed," the report warned, "SSA's ability to provide and maintain an IT infrastructure that meets requirements to effectively support its data exchange programs in the future could be at risk."

The GAO recommends the SSA conduct a detailed analysis to project future workloads and define requirements for the next generation of data exchanges. It certainly is a good idea, and it is at the SSA's own peril if they do not start planning soon.

For more on the SSA's database problems:
- see this nextgov.com article

Related Articles:
New SSA data center going green
IT maintenance a drain on SSA budget
IG: SSA gets failing grades on IT security