The VA is taking a "buy first" approach to modernize its legacy systems in order to meet the needs of a new generation of veterans.

In this contributed op-ed, Palantir's Shyam Sankar argues that government-off-the-shelf technologies are not in the U.S.'s best interest.

Agencies should instead abide by the 1994 Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act and purchase commercial products when possible, according to the Alliance for Digital Innovation.

SSA "requires a suite of COTS tools, including implementation and integration support, for the enhanced automated management of its diverse cloud hosting environments."

The VA proposes migrating its Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture, better known as VistA, to a COTS, software-as-a-service platform.