GAO analysis finds that 89 percent of the federal government's legacy IT systems now cost more to maintain annually than equivalent modern systems would cost to operate, creating a compelling investment case for modernization.
A Government Accountability Office analysis found that 89 percent of the federal government's legacy IT systems — defined as systems using programming languages or hardware components more than 15 years old — now cost more to maintain annually than equivalent modern systems would cost to operate.
The total annual cost of federal legacy IT maintenance was estimated at $19.2 billion in FY2025. The GAO analysis found that modern replacements would cost an estimated $13.8 billion annually to operate, representing a potential annual savings of $5.4 billion once migration costs are amortized over a 10-year period.
Beyond cost, the analysis documents significant operational risks: 23 percent of legacy systems cannot support modern authentication methods required by OMB's identity management policies, 31 percent use unsupported operating systems no longer receiving security patches, and 14 percent face vendor discontinuation of support within three years.
The analysis identifies workforce as a key modernization constraint: 67 percent of legacy systems are maintained by personnel using skills in discontinued programming languages for which fewer than 200 active training programs exist nationwide.
GovAcademy's Modernization of Legacy Government Systems course (GA-008) is specifically designed for CIO offices and program managers leading modernization efforts. The 24-hour Executive course covers FITARA compliance, Technology Modernization Fund applications, and cloud migration sequencing.
The Public Sector Product Management course (GA-017) addresses a key gap identified in the GAO analysis: agencies that fail at modernization often lack product management expertise to effectively specify requirements for modern systems.
OMB responded to the GAO analysis by announcing an expanded Technology Modernization Fund application cycle for FY2026, with a simplified application process for agencies seeking to replace legacy systems.