Report: Fed IT spending to grow 4 percent in '10

Federal IT spending is expected to grow by nearly 4 percent in 2010, according to a new report by Government Insights. That means IT spending that has become central to the operation of government will increase from $73 billion in fiscal 2009 to $75.7 billion in fiscal 2010, according to an article in nextgov.com.

The spending is expected to include modernizing old computers, delivering on transparency promises and increasing security for government systems constantly under attack. Civil agencies will account for roughly 55 percent of the total spending--nearly $42 billion--and the Defense department will spend $33.9 billion, according to the nextgov.com report.

Federal spending on IT will be considerably more than that if the so-called "black budget"--the classified intelligence budget--is included. Some experts say the size of the IT budget will double if it is added in.

Government Insights predicted that the government will spend more time on social networking applications than on Government 2.0 projects.

"Social media is creating a lot of noise as government agencies get [connected] with Facebook, Twitter" and other software applications that can take the place of online services provided through agency websites, said Thom Rubel, vice president of research at Government Insights.

For more on the government's IT budget:
- see this nextgov.com article