Government Financial Architecture: A Focus on Centralized Security and Continuity of Operations

To reverse trends of weak security in government technology systems, Congress now requires Federal agencies to better manage internal IT security. Financial operations are of specific interest, and this effort involved looking at the technical architecture supporting the financial activities of a large Federal agency undergoing the implementation of a new financial system. The information contained in this document was provided to the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in response to concerns of compliance. The primary focus of this paper addresses security issues laid out by the CFO; specifically the following key areas for improvement which include: De-Centralized Architecture, Disaster Recovery, Continuity of Operations, Network and Server Availability. With these goals in mind, information was collected, a risk assessment was performed, and four basic solutions were developed. Benefits and challenges associated with each solution were compared, and a final recommendation was presented as the 'best fit' solution given the business need available resources security issues and overall political consensus.