Modernizing Government IT and strengthening Public Services
State and local government agencies face growing pressure to modernize aging infrastructure, strengthen cybersecurity, and deliver reliable digital services, often with limited resources and complex procurement requirements. Redesign helps agencies navigate these challenges with strategic guidance, innovative technology solutions, and the expertise to build secure, resilient, IT environments.
State and local government IT challenges
State agencies face a critical question: How can they modernize and secure legacy infrastructure to take advantage of emerging technologies while ensuring existing end users are equipped with the training needed to adopt them effectively?
Cybersecurity and risk management
During a 2026 discussion hosted by the Public Technology Institute, local government leaders identified cybersecurity as their top technology priority, citing ransomware threats, budget constraints, and uneven access to resources as ongoing challenges.
Cybersecurity needs vary significantly by municipality, ranging from implementing foundational security measures, such as multi-factor authentication and employee security awareness training, to deploying more advanced capabilities, including continuous threat monitoring, incident response, and ransomware protection.
The resources available to address these needs also differ considerably, with smaller and rural municipalities often facing the greatest challenges due to limited budgets, staffing, and technical expertise.
Legacy systems and infrastructure modernization
Legacy systems continue to support essential government services, but aging technology is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain, secure, and support. Many of these systems rely on outdated programming languages, unsupported hardware or software, and specialized technical expertise that is becoming harder to find. State and local governments must determine which systems to prioritize for modernization, particularly those supporting critical functions such as emergency communications, public benefits, public health, and elections.
Modernization does not necessarily require replacing every legacy system at once. Instead, state and local governments should take a strategic, phased approach, evaluating factors such as security risk, operational importance, cost, and system performance to determine where investments will have the greatest impact. An effective modernization roadmap should establish clear priorities, actionable milestones, defined requirements, and a plan for maintaining, integrating, or retiring existing systems.
The time to act is now. Delaying modernization can increase security vulnerabilities, drive up maintenance costs, and limit the ability to deliver reliable, efficient public services. By proactively assessing legacy infrastructure and investing in a phased modernization strategy, state and local governments can reduce risk, strengthen operational resilience, and build a more secure, scalable foundation for future innovation.
AI adoption and implementation
The growing demand for AI tools presents two key challenges for state and local governments.
First, agencies must determine how AI can support their objectives and improve public services. This requires identifying meaningful use cases, defining clear goals, understanding data requirements, establishing accountability, and assessing potential risks related to security, privacy, and governance.
Second, agencies must evaluate whether their existing technology infrastructure can support AI adoption. Hardware and software designed for traditional government operations may lack the capacity, scalability, or capabilities needed to support AI-powered applications. Addressing these gaps requires a strategic approach to infrastructure modernization, workforce training, and financial planning. With limited internal resources and technical expertise, many agencies may also benefit from external partners to help assess readiness, prioritize investments, and develop a practical roadmap for AI adoption.
Examining state and local agency IT trends
NASCIO's 2026 priorities for state technology leaders include budget, modernization, accessibility, cloud services, and digital service delivery. These priorities show that upgrades and modern tools aren’t simple; planning, migration, integration, and deployment are essential to minimize service disruptions.
These decisions and implementations affect more than one part of the organization, so agencies may need support to view the full environment instead of choosing one product at a time.
Artificial intelligence and risk management
The desire to adopt AI tools is evident, but organizations must plan adequately for risk management. Managing AI risk throughout the full lifecycle of a system, from planning and design through deployment, use, and ongoing monitoring, is a crucial dimension in AI adoption. It also connects AI risk with cybersecurity, privacy, governance, and legal or regulatory requirements.
AI governance
In addition to AI risk management, AI governance is also an increasing priority. This priority is not just operational, but also legal. Counties and other municipalities are increasingly writing their own AI use policies to help with both vendor disclosure and security. However, state and national legislation may cause pivots or changes in the future, requiring these same policy writers to stay fluid and adaptable.
Budget and planning
State and local governments are relying on services to help support adoption and everyday operations, rather than flat product purchases. Municipalities are looking at trusted partners for consulting, managed services, and systems integration rather than pure software and hardware. Budget officials are looking for partners rather than vendors, or an all-in-one provider and partner.
Solutions built for the government's evolving needs
Redesign brings together strategic consulting, leading technology solutions, and specialized expertise to help government agencies modernize infrastructure, strengthen security, and improve operational resilience.
Cybersecurity & risk management
Protect critical systems and sensitive data through security assessments, modern security architectures, and managed security services.
Infrastructure modernization
Improve performance, reliability, and scalability with modern data center, cloud, networking, and data protection solutions.
AI & digital transformation
Build the technology foundations, data strategies, and governance frameworks needed to adopt emerging technologies responsibly.
Professional & managed services
Extend internal IT capabilities with expert implementation, ongoing management, and strategic support.
Zero trust security in state and local government
Zero trust architecture is now the standard for state and local government cybersecurity. This architecture replaces outdated, perimeter-based defenses with a model built on one principle: never trust, always verify.
For government agencies managing hybrid infrastructure, legacy systems, and constrained IT staff, zero trust means every user, device, and application is continuously validated. This results in reduced attacks, faster incident response, and a security strategy that scales with limited budgets and staff without disruption on mission-critical systems.
22%
The percentage of state CISOs who feel extremely or very confident they can protect public data today is down from 48% in 2022.
75%
Percentage of US federal agencies that will fail to fully implement zero-trust security policies, with budget and expertise shortages cited as the main reasons.
Value with velocity in state & local government
Our experts work with local governments to understand the needs and goals of their IT demands and provide support every step of the process. Following our Value with Velocity protocol, we can help your group achieve its IT goals.
Assess
Give us 30 minutes of your time to conduct a brief discovery. We'll perform an in-depth audit of your organization's IT environment using industry-standard tools that integrate into Redesign's proprietary assessment portal.
Propose
We select, design, and quote recommended solutions in a detailed proposal with a current-state analysis, solution options, and financial summary, so that you can make the most informed decision possible.
Implement
Our world-class project managers and certified delivery engineers will ensure you receive quick time-to-value as we execute the plan.
Validate
Redesign provides ongoing assessments of the implemented solutions to ensure you receive the expected technology and business outcomes.
Let's build what's next for your government agency.
Whether your agency is planning a modernization project, assessing cybersecurity risks, evaluating new technology, or seeking long-term guidance, we will work with you to understand your environment and help you create a clear path forward.
