Keeping Pace with Change

As the business of USDA evolves, the IT infrastructure that supports the Department must change. But in what specific ways? According to which priorities?

The Optimized Computing Environment supports modernization and technological advancement across the Service Center Agencies (SCA) enterprise. It is a five-year program that started in 2012. When fully completed, it will define a set of IT standards for aligning SCA CCE infrastructure to its mission. 

Enhancing Mobility and Networks 

It’s a big task so priorities are important. The initial focus areas of the optimization are Enterprise Mobility and Network Enhancement.

Service Center Agencies are moving toward mobility as a business application platform for their remote workforce. ITS provides a secure container solution that keeps application data safe when it is delivered to mobile devices. ITS is also strengthening the SCA network to support modernization efforts. These focus areas lay the foundation needed to support evolving technology.

Once deployed, these enhancements will benefit all Service Center Agencies by:

• Improving mobile functionality
• Providing a secure platform for mobile access to applications
• Accelerating network performance
• Modernizing SCA’s network infrastructure
• Right-sizing systems to meet business requirements
• Minimizing business service outages with end-to-end network monitoring
• Maximizing ROI and minimizing recurring costs