The straightway five years

Federal information innovation spending is expected to remain broadly speaking flat over the straightway five years, with agencies receiving little or no additional funding for administration priorities just as cloud computing and data center consolidation, according to a new IT spending forecast by TechAmerica Foundation.

As a result, the fate of federal efforts to embrace cloud computing and mobile computing technologies is relatively uncertain, according to the forecast.

Much of the government's future IT spending will be focused on health IT, wireless and mobile innovation and investments in consolidation initiatives.

The same time spending is flat

At the same time spending is flat, the number of contractors competing for federal business is increasing, Ray Bjorklund, chief knowledge officer at Deltek, said in an interview. "There are a few more players, and there are less dollars. That means competition heats up."

And during administration initiatives like cloud computing are aimed at reducing costs, agencies are uncertain whether congressional appropriators will allow them to reinvest those savings.